Hourglass
by teal2indigo
Summary: Discovered and trained by Hitsugaya Tourshirou, Misawa fights, wins/loses, and writes the report on it like every other Shinigami. Young and inexperienced, she could only watch from the sidelines as her friends fight Aizen's war and her world shatter around her, and wait for the day she could join them. Pre-Soul Society Arc.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

Author's Note:

(1) This story conceptualized before the Thousand-Years-War Arc, so it is slightly AU as of that point.

(2) This is a rewrite of the story Unknown Intentions. I am restarting this story about a very _very_ long hiatus. I just thought I owed it to my readers. Now that I'm older and wiser (or so I hope), I'm re-editing the story, everything from mixing sentences and flow of events to reshaping some characters. Hopefully this will make the story a more pleasant read for you.

_NEW UPDATE (June 20, 2012): I know it seems like a long silence again, but I still am writing this story and I'm farther ahead in my draft than what I have released. The first 7 or 8 chapters only covers up to Ch.4 in my original story, and are a lot longer in word count. I've added a lot more details and scenes of varying significance to the plot. _

_(3) The genre of the story shifted a bit. My treatment of the "romance" section of has changed. It's still there, but it's not quite the normal, fluffy version people put it. I put a lot more detail in to set up the "mystery" element. We'll see how that goes. I might change the story's genre if it gets to that point. _

Also, I'm horrible at proof-reading (trust me, I do try really hard) so I skip words/letters sometimes, and verb tenses don't really register that well in my head either. Please forgive that.

The progression of the events in the first two chaptesr is a lot choppier that what it would be in the story, just so you know.

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Prologue (a.k.a A Long Time Ago)<strong>

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><p><em><strong>For her, it began twenty-five years ago, with a dream unlike any other – a dream with a voice, a spirit, and a will of its own, a dream that led her to her destiny.<strong>_

_**It started in the rain, a drizzle too common for that season, yet special all the same. **_

_**One day, decades later, it would end in a bloodbath. **_

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><p>-Night, West Rukongai, 2nd District-<p>

The dreams began as disjointed, voiceless illusions, not continuous enough to be coherent, and not frequent enough to warrant attention. That changed quickly, though. They gradually became consistent. The same continuous series of visions replayed itself every single night. Then, it began to speak, first only at night and soon extended to during the day as well, outside of the confines of a dream. At that point, it was just plain annoying.

"You should become a shinigami." It said to the girl, this time rather late into the night when she laid awake on her futon.

"I've already told you, many, many times: not yet." The young girl retorted. Her voice carried that tone of defiance and naivety common to that age group. However, in public, she would display a gentler and more agreeable demeanor, like most normal people would.

"You are strong and I am ready to serve you. I can help you reach your full potential when you are a shinigami." The dragon pressed.

"Mizu," That's the dragon's name, as the girl learned months after being "haunted" by the dreams. An appropriate name for a dragon made of water, though. She learned it after what she would like to call an "internal yelling match" with the dragon. She wasn't sure if she won, but the dragon was really pleased with her and told her its name. It improved her opinion of it temporarily, but soon she was back to being rather annoyed at its constant beckoning to begin training and become a shinigami. "I'm really tired tonight, can't we argue about this tomorrow?"

"It's your destiny. It's only a matter of time, Rena."

"Then there's no need to hurry, then." Misawa Rena snapped, but was ignored. She didn't like it when the dragon used her name. Mizu was female; it was very good at putting on a maternal tone that was at all suited to its disposition.

"Strong reiatsu and the ability to control it are essential in the shinigami arts. You are blessed with high amount of reiatsu and you can control it impeccably. That's a rare talent and even rarer combination."

"I'm being complimented by a voice in my head that only I can hear. Do you know how mentally unsound it is for me to take its advice blindly?" Rena already knew Mizu wasn't just a hallucination, but she still thought that response sounded clever.

"Please refrain from treating me with so little respect, child." The dragon was not amused.

"Then let's talk about this some other day when I'm not exhausted from work and it isn't midnight…" She dropped her tough and defiant act by this point; she _was_ tired.

"With my cooperation in improving your zanjutsu, you could be a proficient in record time. That's why I am so ready to serve you. I assure that this level of cooperation on the part of the zanpakutou is _extremely_ uncommon. Accept my help and enjoy all the advantages that it will offer you. You'll gain the Shikai of your zanpakutou in no time, and then…"

"I'll think about it." The young girl said half-heartedly as she yawned and slipped into a dream-ridden sleep. She wasn't even sure what Shikai was.

The dragon in her soul sighed. The girl just doesn't realize how strong she could be, how strong her weapon is capable of being. Unlike most child harboring spiritual pressure, Misawa Rena could control her power well enough so that she wasn't hurting anyone, but she could do a lot more when she learned how strong and peculiar she really was as a shinigami, and how much power her zanpakutou wields.

But right now, she was just a child, and was determined to stay that way. Mizu could see into her soul: she only didn't want to become a shinigami because she didn't want to leave her friends in the Rukon district, and more importantly, because none of them thought well of the shinigami. Such childish antics, Mizu thought. Because Mizu knew nothing can be gained without making a few sacrifices, and with a destiny like hers waiting, very few prices could be deemed too high.

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><p>-next day, evening-<p>

Misawa Rena sighed with relief when the bell rang for the end of the day's work: she was exhausted. It was another busy day at the small apothecary shop in the 2nd District where she worked. By now her legs throbbed from standing almost the whole day. Her shoulders, especially the right one, ached, form carrying and handling a lot of boxes, mixing up the prescriptions, and writing out instructions. This was how she had to pay back the shop for training to write legibly and neatly. And on top of all her physical pain, she had a major headache, due to the fact she spent earlier part of the night debating with Mizu, the "imaginary" dragon in her head, and lost some good sleep because of it.

She didn't want to give the dragon the satisfaction of knowing that she was thinking over what it said over the course of the day, but she knew that it could read her thoughts. It was true that she had strong amount of reiatsu; she learned that when she was studying basic healing techniques with the chief healer at this very apothecary shop when she just came to Soul Society a few years ago. She also knew that she had good control over it.

She had all the things Mizu the dragon said she would need to become a powerful shinigami, but these decisions were never easy to make. Rena wasn't exactly a master of fighting in any form, but she usually got out of those rare scuffles in the streets without getting seriously injured. If you can't beat them, run – that was her mantra, but to her that was nothing like the fighting spirit she expected a shinigami to have. She was agile like her lithe build suggested, but on the flip side, she didn't carry much strength in her limbs. Mizu, however, claimed that it was nothing that couldn't be fixed a bit of training.

Her friend Kenji's interruption offered her brain a welcomed break from pondering the issue any further. "Rena-chan, want to buy some fruit before heading home?"

"Sure." She smiled, too happy to occupy herself with something, anything that did not involve listening to voices in her head.

The two youngsters stepped out on to the streets. Together, they could pass off as brother and sister. They were both dark-haired and dark-eyed. Neither was the head-turning kind of beautiful, but they were far from what one could call ugly. Dressed in plain gray uniform kimonos given by the shop, they merged easily into the crowed.

_'It's going to rain. There are a lot of water in the air.'_ Rena thought to herself as she walked with Kenji. She had always been sensitive to water. She loved water, all forms of it, with a possible exception of a talking dragon spirit. She felt connected to it in a way, and…_Mizu was made of water_. But she was not at peace. She could feel a battle very close to where they are; not close enough to be seen or heard, but close enough that she can feel everything that's happening by sensing the movements in the spiritual pressure.

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><p>-outskirts of the 2nd district-<p>

Matsumoto Rangiku, the lieutenant of the 10th division, grunted in pain as she crashed hard against the ground. The mission was underrated: there's no way a lieutenant alone could handle this group of hollows. In fact, they were like nothing Matsumoto had ever seen before. They_ looked_ like regular hollows – weak regular hollows that fresh academy graduates could handle, but their strength told a very different story. Despite the fact she brought three unseated officers with her, they were more of a hindrance than help in the ferocious battle. Thanks to her experience, Matsumoto was already on the last hollow, but she is also exhausted and seriously injured, and she was unable to protect her subordinates when they fell one after one. As she inflicted the final blow to finish off her enemy, she also received one that drove her hard into ground for who know how many times today. She only managed to stay conscious a few seconds longer than her dying opponent.

"...Humph, stupid shinigami if finally getting exactly what she deserves…"

"...Leave her to die…"

"...Get away from this thing…"

Matsumoto could hear these comments as she lied there half-conscious, and if she wasn't too injured or too weak, she would have been extremely upset and gave them a piece of her mind. She knew that the people of the Rukongai were not particularly fond of shinigami, but the only reason she was in that state was because she was fighting against monsters that are endangering their lives. Intentional or not, she was protecting them and they were not the most appreciative folks.

It started raining, and the rain water stung her wounds. She could feel the crowd disperse to hide from the weather and mentally sighed again. '_If Division 4 doesn't pick me up soon, I might die here._' She thought with a sense of despair.

Beside her there were only two people left, both appearing extremely weak in reitsu.

"We should help her, Kenji-kun…"

"No! She's a shinigami…"

"She didn't hurt us…"

"You'll become the most hated person in all of the Rukongai if you try and help a shinigami, Rena-chan. Now, let's get you inside before you catch a cold from the rain."

There are ruffles of fabric, and Matsumoto could feel their reitsu fade as they walked away. She mentally thanked the unknown girl for her kind heart, but that's wouldn't make much of a difference to her anymore. Now, she waited for her death in the rain and slowly fell unconscious again.

When Matsumoto was somewhat conscious again, she could not move at all. However, she could feel her weight being shifted onto a small, thin, and slightly wobbly shoulder. She came back, the girl from earlier, the one that wanted to help her. She was amazed at the young girl's strength as she half dragged and half carried the elder women in the rain for half an hour. Finally, Matsumoto was settled down onto a futon inside a building, and she passed out again.

Reitsu flowed into her body, urging her wounds to heal.

It was so calming, so natural. Like water.

She fell asleep again.

-night, Seireitei, 10th division office-

Hitsugaya Toushirou, the prodigy captain of the 10th division of the Gotei 13, finished off the last of his lieutenant's paperwork. She didn't come yet from the hollow extermination mission in the outskirts of the 2nd district, it was assigned this morning, and he was worried. It was a lieutenant-level mission, but he received a report that claimed there was a complication. He tried to focus on his lieutenant's reitsu but he could find it. '_It must be the distance._' He hoped.

"TAICHOU!" The door of his office flew open and his third-seated officer stormed in, with panic, fear, and worry written easily across his face.

"What is it?" Captain Hitsugaya asked calmly, completely masking the concerns that plagued him.

"It's Matsumoto-Fukutaichou!" The officer said breathlessly. "She requested for backup during her mission and we organized a team, but by the time we got there, all we could find were the dead bodies of the three guys she brought with her and the dead hollows!"

"Where is she?"

"We don't know anything for certain, but some residents said they saw a shinigami whose description matched Matsumoto Fukutaichou in the outskirts of the 2nd district. The said shinigami was unconscious and heavily injured at the time. None of them saw anyone moving her or making an effort to help her but we could not find her at the location they gave us."

Hitsugaya contemplated on the situation for a while. His lieutenant is injured and missing, and his capable division members must have been more or less exhausted since they spent quite a bit of the day searching for her. "Get everyone to rest for tonight. Organize a search in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd district for Matsumoto Fukutaichou first thing tomorrow morning. I'll start in the 2nd district now."

"Hai."

Using flashsteps, Hitsugaya was in the 2nd district in no time at all. He stopped near center of the town and searched for his lieutenant's reitsu, and this time, he felt it.

It was weak, very weak, but it was getting stronger very gradually. What surprised him even more was that there was another powerful spiritual presence next to Matsumoto's. Unlike most of the stronger reitsu one might find in the Rukongai, this one was well controlled. He approached its sources using flashsteps, and found himself outside a shabby cabin in a far back alley. The cabin was attached to a small house and was apparently leased to its occupant.

Hitsugaya approached the window carefully and looked in. He saw a young girl, appearing to be close to his age, focusing her reitsu and using them to help to Matsumoto heal. It was a very basic method of healing, and it was not widely used because it uses a lot of reitsu. It was especially unconventional with wounds that are serious, such as those which his lieutenant seem to have sustained, because the reitsu could actually further damage the soul if it was not controlled well. Clearly that was not the issue with this girl.

There was one thing that shinigami officer should do when they discover a strong spiritual presence in the Rukon district: to convince him or her to train to become a shinigami. That was how he was recruited. The most popular pretext had been "to bring their power under control," but obviously that didn't apply to this one. No matter, though, Hitsugaya thought, protocol is protocol. He stepped into the room, mentally adding this girl to list of people he needed to bring back with him to the Seireitei.

-end-

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><p>hope you enjoyed it!<p>

Leave a review or send me a message! I would love some feedback! Constructive criticism and suggestions (plot, writing mechanics, or otherwise) are welcome!


	2. Chapter 2: The One Way Road

**Chapter 2: The One-Way Road **

Five years before Aizen's Betrayal, a Misawa Rena from the Rukon district saved Lieutenant Matsumoto Rangiku from bleeding to death in the rain after the latter was injured during a mission. Hitsugaya Toushirou invited Misawa to join the Gotei 13 when he realized the young girl's potential as a shinigami. She was reluctant at first, and refused him and his envoys repeatedly, but that's hardly uncommon when recruiting from the Rukon District, and like almost all of the cases, she came around eventually.

"_Who are you?" The Gatekeeper asked. "Do you have a travelling permit?" He peered down the girl, her cheeks red from rubbing and eyes puffy from crying, though she dried her tears already. _

_"No. my name is Misawa. Captain Hitsugaya is expecting me." She said firmly. When she looked back up at him, he noticed a small pack she carried on her back. _

"_I wasn't given notice to expect you. I can't let you into the Seireitei with something as flimsy as that, and you probably won't be allowed to just see a Captain anyways. Do you have a written permission of any kind?" _

_She shook her head. "I don't have anything. But I'm sure that he'll see me. Can't you send him a message? I need to speak with him." She asked earnestly, her voice pleading and desperate. _

_He gave in, only because it seemed like it was something personal for Captain Hitsugaya, his old friend. He called for a Hell Butterfly. "What do you want me to tell him?"_

_Her face lit up at the prospect of seeing her request granted. "Just that 'Misawa of the Second District changed her mind.' That should suffice." She told him, now in a far more composed and comfortable voice. _

_The Gatekeeper sent the Butterfly off as she instructed. Ten minute later, Captain Hitsugaya himself appeared at the gates. He nodded and the Gatekeeper let her into the Seireitei. She looked uncomfortable walking onto the polished marble pavement, but she followed Captain Hitsugaya beyond the bend and out of sight. _

_The Gatekeeper didn't remember seeing her leaving by those gates. Not later that day. Not later that week. Not later that month. _

She first drew attention to herself about a month after starting classes at the Academy, after she released her Shikai in middle of training session. She was losing to a taller and far more proficient swordsman during sparring. Out of the blue, she was able to gather enough spiritual energy in the form of a zanpakutou and flooded the entire training hall with her Shikai. She may not have been the youngest person to achieve Shikai, but getting a Shikai after one month of training was not something most can boast.

"_I'm sorry! I'm really really sorry that it happened. I had no idea that it could happen like that! Is he okay, the young man I was sparring with?" She cried in panic in the interrogation room. Her hands were tied behind her and she had no idea where they took her sword. _

"_Are you telling me that this is your first time releasing a zanpakutou like that?" The interrogator asked coldly._

"_Yes! I didn't know anything about releases, I swear! Our instructor didn't even get into them because he said it was too advanced for first-years." She replied, terrified of both what she could do and what the authorities would do to her. _

"_That's unheard of! You expect me to believe that some rat from the Rukon District is able to release Shikai at full power at the most opportune moment without prior study? You aren't in the academy's system before. Who taught you? Who trained you? Why did you keep your training secret? SPEAK!" _

"_No one! I wasn't trained… I didn't know…" She broke down sobbing by then. _

_She sobbed so hard that she didn't even notice someone coming into the room and interrogator promptly shutting up. _

The word went around that she was recruited first by Captain Hitsugaya. Many whispered about how her zanpakutou was an elemental water zanpakutou just like Captain Hitsugaya's. While theories floated around the Seireitei, Misawa, her classmates, her instructors, and a brigade of healers who frequented the academy experienced first hand why rookies with only one week of shinigami training should not be allowed to have shikai. Gaining Shikai is one thing. Mastering Shikai is something completely different. She did not know how to control it, contain it, use it, or even stop it. It wrecked havoc left, right, and centre.

"_I'm not here to interrogate you, Misawa, so I need you to be honest with me." Hitsugaya Toushirou said as he sat down on the interrogator's seat, while his lieutenant loosened the bounds and Misawa's wrist and smiling at her reassuringly. _

"_Thank you, Hitsugaya-taichou. Of course." She said shakily, her voice still unsteady from the crying. _

"_Was the incident in the training hall the first time you were able to conjure up a zanpakutou?" He asked. _

"_Yes."_

"_Was that also the first time you released your zanpakutou by calling it name?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Was that the first time you discovered your zanpakutou's name?" _

"_No." She replied honestly, thinking back to all those restless nights in the Rukon District. However, this was clearly not the answer he was expecting. His eyes widened and Lieutenant Matsumoto gasped in surprise. _

"_What do you mean? You found out its name before now?" _

"_Yes. I think it's almost six months now. It spoke to me all the time. It tells me which side to block when I spar with other people. But it's rather quiet since the training hall incident. Kind of …smug…" She said quietly. _

_Hitsugaya furrowed his brows as he tried to understand the situation. Beside him, his lieutenant just looked at the youth with curiosity. _

Maybe it was the rumours or wild theories. Maybe it was a sense of responsibility he felt for introducing her to all this. Whatever the reason was, the result was that Hitsugaya requested to be personally involved in the training of Misawa Rena. Soutaichou permitted Hitsugaya's request to personalize her training curriculum and schedule. The details of his training schedule for her were not made public; it was a combination of classes, private training with Captain Hitsugaya, and training in the Tenth Division.

"_It's not normal – what's happening with your zanpakutou – but I'm sure you figured it out by now." Histugaya told her seriously. She was in his office, and they were discussing her new training program. "You shouldn't be able to hear the name of your zanpukutou before you can even gather your spiritual energy into one. I'm not surprised that you are able to conjure your zanpakutou, given your ability to control your reiatsu, but that still doesn't mean you automatically get Shikai. Most zanpakutou spirits wait until you are proficient with the sword as a physical weapon before giving you the release command and their name."_

"_Then why did Mizu...?" Misawa asked uncertainly. _

"_I don't know. It's not only unconventional, but extremely dangerous, as you can see. You haven't demonstrated enough shinigami ability for it to consider you a master worthy of obeying. Most zanpakutous just don't show themselves at this stage. Your zanpakutou just seem like it is anxious to show off its power. I'm not sure if it's trying to show off to others or to you, but it's not doing you any favors. You can't cheat in a process like this. Technically, you gained shikai in record speed, but mastering it from this end of the process is going to be hell. And it's not just your career as a shinigami at stake here; it's your life as well." _

It still took Misawa more than a year to gain a sufficient amount of control over her shikai. Barely another year had passed before she had the exact same problem with Bankai, only this time it was doing a lot more damage that just flooding the rooms. Captain Hitsugaya scrambled to keep her power under control and the rumours under wraps, but both saw little success and the spontaneity of both died down with time and training.

_Hitsugaya opened his eyes after adding a Kido lock to the physical barrier. His grim expression was shared by Misawa standing next to him. _

"_Don't hold this against me, Misawa. It's necessary." He said gravely. _

"_I understand. I don't blame you, but… she isn't happy about this, Taichou." Misawa added. She was just as exhausted as he was after the ordeal. Now, she felt even more drained the link between herself and her zanpakutou was disturbed by the Kido. Mizu, the physical weapon, was locked up and Hitsugaya added a kido barrier around it. They decided that it was safest solution for the time being. _

"_It was reckless. You weren't ready for Bankai! What was it thinking? You were lucky that Unohana-Taichou happens to be in our division compound for the annual physicals. We both might have died in there!" Hitsugaya said through gritted teeth. _

"…_I know. I'm sorry, taichou. But…it's just like last time. I had no idea it could happen like this. I had no idea that it would happen like this!" Misawa was on the edge of tears; exasperation was still in her voice. _

_They were silent for a moment. They both sighed vocally and stared at the locked box in front of them. _

"_What do I do now, taichou?" Misawa asked after a few moments of silence. "If I can't use a zanpakutou…" _

"_Carry on with your classes in the Academy. I'll arrange for some extra Kido training for you. It's too dangerous for you to go on missions without a zanpakutou, and I can't train you like this either. Focus on Kido. Do you understand? It will help you control both your and your zanpakutou's reiatsu. You need it now more than ever." _

"_But… When will you let Mizu go, taichou?" _

"_Until you can control it to a reasonable degree. A new bankai can go out of control. That's not surprising. But it shouldn't be showing up at all at this stage, when you can't control it at. Separating you two will weaken you both, but it's probably for the best for now. Keep this quiet, do you understand? The Central 46 don't like powerful weapons they can't control, and they sure as hell can't control a zanpakutou if even its wielder can't." _

"_Of course." She told him. _

"_Alright. Let's go, then." Hitsugaya ordered. _

_Misawa merely nodded in response. The loneliness of being parted from Mizu was beginning to sink into her soul. To her surprise, her captain put a supportive hand on her shoulder as they left the room. _

Misawa liked Kido, and she wasn't exactly bad at it either. Kido was probably easier for her to learn than zanjutsu, because she didn't have the control problems she had with Mizu when it came to Kido. But advanced Kido was a different story. She would have had no problem learning it at the same pace as the other students, but at the advanced pace Captain Hitsugaya was putting her through, it became tricky.

"_It's an honour to meet you, Hinamori-Fukutaichou. I'm most grateful for your consenting to tutor me." Misawa said as she bowed deeply. Her heart pounded wildly. It has only been two years since she first entered the Seireitei. This was the first time she was meeting a senior member of the Gotei 13 beyond Captain Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Matsumoto. The Lieutenants and Captains are as feared as they are respected. Lieutenant Hinamori has a better reputation than most, but Misawa was still scared. _

"_It's nice to meet you too, Misawa-chan. You don't have to be so formal with me. Hinamori-kun or Hinamori-chan if fine. If you call me Fukutaichou, it will just make me nervous!" Hinamori replied good-naturedly. _

"_Uhm… uhm…" Misawa began nervously, and couldn't seem to get a word out. _

_Hitsugaya noticed that Misawa was still uneasy, and suggested, "How about you call her Hinamori-Senpai, then?"_

"_That's a good starting point, I think." Hinamori agreed. Misawa just nodded. _

"_Okay, Misawa, Hinamori will help you with Advanced Kido. The Kido Arts have very precise demand of reiatsu control and practice will sharpen it, and Kido will provide you an alternative way of fighting, without a zanpakutou. I think both aspects will be beneficial to you." Hitsugaya told Misawa. He added, "I'll leave you two for today." after she nodded in acknowledgement. _

"_So how long until you have to write the graduation exam, Misawa-chan?" Hinamori asked, after Hitsugaya disappeared with a gust of wind. _

"_Taichou thinks that I should write it by the end of next school year. I'm only taking Kido classes now. Taichou says that I should get it over with and practice in combat." Misawa said honestly._

"_Well, let's get started then!" Hinamori said encouragingly. "Now show me the hardest you've managed to tackle so far!" _

Hitsugaya Taichou is the youngest person to reach captain rank in the Gotei 13, and he made sure his protégée wouldn't disappoint. Sure enough, Misawa didn't disappoint under his tutelage and arrangements. She passed the graduation exam three years after enrolling in the academy. It didn't seem much compared her captain's track record, but she was allowed to work with Division 10 in the mean time and had a lot of field experience under her belt by the time she officially became a shinigami.

'_Awkward' was the only word Misawa could use to describe her graduation ceremony from the academy. She didn't know most of her classmates. She had classes with some of them for Kido, but most of them were strangers and none could be called a friend. Everyone was wary of her, even the teachers. _

_She was famous, or infamous, depending on the point of view of the person you ask. She didn't have friends in the Academy. She didn't family in the Rukon district to see her. She didn't have friends from the past to congratulate her on that day. The graduation ceremony passed without any drama for her, a welcoming change after an eventful three years. _

_She didn't go to the various cerebrations around the Seireitei that night. She did go to the welcoming party for new recruits into the Tenth Division two days later, but she ended up being there more like a member of the division welcoming the graduates than a new recruit into a division. _

"_You should loosen up. Go talk to people. Flirt with the boys. Get drunk. Have fun!" Matsumoto Rangiku told her with a mischievous smile. _

_Rena chuckled. "Actually, Taichou told me to watch out for you and keep you from getting too drunk." _

_Rangiku pouted, and then broke into a grin. "I hope those rumours from those academy students are not getting to your head, Misawa-chan. I don't care if you've reached Shikai in record time or that you are Taichou's protégée. What on Earth made you think that you have what it takes to stand between me and sake?"_

_Misawa smiled back sheepishly. "I've got nothing. I guess another lecture about the damage all those alcohol will do to your liver won't sway you, won't it?"_

"_No. No it won't. But seeing as how I'm _such a wonderful lieutenant_, I'm going to hold off getting my first liquor. I'll introduce myself and behave perfectly professionally while myself and everyone else here is still sober." _

_Rena and Rangiku both laughed. Matsumoto had her first drink twenty minutes after the party began. Rena spent the better part of the night adding water to Rangiku's cup so the liquor would be more diluted._

After Misawa passed her graduation exams and became a shinigami, Misawa joined the 10th division. Her training continued for another year and half after her graduation, during which Captain Hitsugaya helped her control her Bankai to a safe level. Every once in a while she would still spar with Hitsugaya and he would give her a few pointers, but soon they were too busy for such activities.

It was common knowledge among the senior officers Gotei 13 and the division members of the 10th Division that the young lady has long possessed Shikai and was dabbling with Bankai, so more than often Rena was sent on higher level mission despite the fact she doesn't have a seat in her division. On top of that, she also had administrative responsibilities in the 10th division that would equate to a lieutenant's, since she was the default candidate to fill in for any absent officers, or to fill in for Matsumoto whenever she disappeared. In Matusmoto's case, it happens rather frequently. While officially, she didn't hold a position of any sort, her division accepted an anomaly like her. But maybe she was just a bit too different, because everyone could work with her as a member of their division, but no one thought of her as a friend.

"_It's not often that an unseated officer gets to lead an operation like this, isn't it?" Rena whimsically asked the young woman walking by her side. _

"_No, it's not. But I also thought that it's not often that unseated officers were sent on rescue missions by themselves." Kuchiki Rukia replied with a grin. _

_There were some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and taking down a fifteen-foot mutant Hollow was definitely one of them.* _

It was a strange friendship – a strange of kind understanding. Neither of them truly belonged with the group they are a part of in name, and neither were allowed to be in the group that corresponded to their situation and strength. They were two misfits who decided it was better to be misfits together than waiting alone until they could fit in somewhere.

To Rukia, her new friend was a fine distracting in her grieving. To Rena, Rukia was a welcoming break from Division Ten, around which her life revolved since her meeting with Captain Hitsugaya four years ago. They were both just a bit too peculiar to fit in with everyone else.

But when she looks back, Rena could help but feel like everything in her life was kind of peculiar. She traveled down the path in such a convoluted and unconventional way that each stage felt like a narrow escape. When she squeezed through, there was no turning back. When she walked pass those gates onto the marble pavement of the Seireitei all those time ago, there had been no turning back.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

*tribute to JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

hope you guys enjoyed this!

I would love to hear some feedback!


	3. Chapter 3: Karmic

Author's Note: Yes, I'm back! And I think I went a little insane the last month writing this, since this chapter and the next are very long. I also rewrote this bit about three times and it broke my heart to scrap a 10,000 word-long arc I had before I switched to this. I realized that I had to start publishing things or else I'd spend forever editing and rewriting, and you guys will never get to read anything. Well, here it is!

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><p><strong>Chapter 3: Karmic <strong>

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><p>-April, Year of the Winter War-<p>

Third Seat officer Hagiwara Tsuyoshi of Gotei 13's Tenth Division was promoted to that office by the previous captain, but he still occupy that office to this day because he demonstrated many quantities the current young captain also held high esteem. Namely, those quantities were talent, integrity, and intelligence.

And being the intelligent man he was, he just knew he wasn't going to like what would happen next when the unseated but famous Misawa Rena and her two companions walked into the division office, looking for him.

The red light should have went off in Officer Hagiwara's head when the youngsters' expressions resembled that of a bunch of children having fond an unattended cookie jar upon finding him alone there.

Accompanying Misawa were the Division's co-fifteenth seats: the Yukio twins, better know as Daiyuki and Koyuki, meaning Big Yuki and Little Yuki. The twin brothers entered Tenth Division four years ago, one year after Misawa first entered the Seireitei. She spent a lot of time doing entry-level training with them so they had always been on good terms. However, unlike Misawa, who spent her five years here under the stern eyes of Captain Hitsugaya, the Yukio Twins had the same opportunity as every other young and talented shinigami to run around and unleash chaos to the best of their abilities.

Though a troublesome handful they maybe, the Yukio Twins were mostly considerate and never malicious. They were popular and advanced through the ranks well. Today was their shared birthday and their party had been the talk of the last two weeks among the young members of the Tenth and several other divisions. They rented a venue, had music set up, ordered food, and even prepared a clean-up crew. They thought of everything except for the possibility that they might end up being scheduled to patrol together on the night of their birthday and party.

Hagiwara was in charge of the night patrol shifts, and being the reasonable man he was, he agreed to let them switch their shifts if they could find a replacement. Apparently they found one.

"Hagiwara-san!" The three youngsters all bowed in greeting, and rose from their bow smiling like their faces were the sun itself.

"Is the Captain out for dinner?" Koyuki asked quickly after scanning the room.

"Yes he is. What are you three up to?" Hagiwara asked, though he could already guess.

"We found our replacement for our patrol shift tonight! We just need your approval and we are all good!" Koyuki exclaimed victoriously.

"Really? Who will be the unlucky fellows to missing the party of the month, then?"

"Oh, you jest, Hagiwara-san! It will be the Party of the Year!" Daiyuki ignored the question instead.

However, Hagiwara was not one to be distracted easily. "Right. Right. And who is the replacement?"

"Misawa-chan here, of course!" Daiyuki said with a big smile, complete wit the "ta-da" sound effect.

"You have one replacement for two people." He pointed out plainly.

"Patrol shifts can be done solo!"

That's what Hagiwara was scared of. Captain Hitsugaya Toushirou discouraged solo patrolling as a general policy, but fell just short of specifically forbidding it. So, the Tenth Division's co-fifteenth seats actually found this loophole and decided to take full advantage of it.

Night Patrol was a boring job, especially when done alone. There's no one to talk to. There's nothing to see, and most of the time, if you are lucky, there's nothing to do as well. But the boredom was nothing compared to the danger solo patrollers risked. If a partner can't help you much in combat, at least he or she can run for backup while you fight to the death. And then there's the problem with Misawa.

Misawa was strong enough to handle herself in most dangerous situations. Hagiwara had seen the prodigy in combat and was certain that her strength does not lie below his own. However, Misawa had the uncanny talent of having horrible, horrible luck. When she went out into the field with the Captain, it was usually on a rescue call and everything that could go wrong already went wrong before they arrived.

When Misawa went out alone… well, it seemed like the Twelve Divisions' Mission-Difficulty-Assessment-System hated her. While their assessment is 80% accurate on average, about half of the missions Misawa went on without the Captain ended up being reassessed to quite a few levels higher. She could still handle herself, but the thought that she was facing more danger than anticipated was not comforting.

Captain Hitsugaya preferred Misawa to not get into dangerous situations, and he expected his officers to enforce that.

"How did they talk you into it?" Hagiwara asked Misawa, who used to joke about the elements of fate working against her. "One person doing two person's job? Even if it's a birthday favor, that's a bit much."

Misawa grinned. _Okay, so maybe she temporarily forgot about her bad-luck-streak._ "They each owe me a routine shift now, and…" Misawa was practically beaming at the next tought "They promised me that they'd burn through Matsumoto-Fukutaichou's private liquor stash at the party tonight!"

_Oh, that changed things._ Hagiwara was suddenly interested in the plan now. The sad fact is no matter how much their captain yells at her, their Lieutenant simply could not do any work when inebriated. Then, her work would be shared instead by the Captain, Misawa, and Third Seat Hagiwara. If they could destroy her private stash at this time of the year, she wouldn't finish replenishing it until August and at least won't have much to drink until the next pay cheque. In the mean time, she would (hopefully) get more work done.

"Not that I don't appreciate a bit more sobriety around here, but the Captain…" Hagiwara began, but internally he already started making excuses to make sure Misawa gets this deal. _"Patrol shifts" are different from "missions" and were far less dangerous and eventful._

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him!" Misawa said gleefully.

"He's going to find out tomorrow morning when he checks the reports." Hagiwara replied dryly, a bit disappointed that this plan wasn't very well-thought out after all.

"But the shift would be over by then and he wouldn't have much to say at that point!" Misawa argued. "C'mon, Hagiwara-san! I'll have these two put on cleaning duty for a week for every bottle of the Lieutenant's liquor that they miss!" Misawa proposed.

"See, it's a win-win situation. For everyone!" Koyuki chimed in, obviously confident that he wouldn't miss a single bottle. "It took us three days and probably a hundred tries but we can now pick the lock to that cabinet in five sec-AAAH!"

Koyuki was interrupted painfully as Misawa stumped on him feet, whose eyes turned toward the door.

"Pick the lock to _which_ Cabinet?" His cool voice was literally sending shivers down the spines of the four shinigami in the room. None of them sensed Captain Hitsugaya coming; even Misawa, who was famous for her spiritual sensitivity, was too caught up in her little scheme to notice. _"Well? Yukio?"_ The cold voice repeated its question when none dared to answer.

" … The Cabinet…. where… my ….cousin Naeko …keep her special… cat treats!" Koyuki lied lamely, complete with a fake smile showing far too much of his gum. His three co-conspirators had to resist the urge to smack their foreheads.

"Cat treats?" Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow. He didn't show the slightest hint of being amused by how terrible the lie is.

"Yes!" Sensing danger, Daikuyi stepped up to back up his brother. "That stuff was magic! If you wave it around, the cat will jump over fences and stuff to come and get it! We always wanted to try it!"

"You wanted to sample cat treats? Should I suggest a visit to the Fourth Division?" Hitsugaya asked, still not slightly amused, even though his subordinates in the room where struggling to hold back their laughter.

"No! We wanted to see if it worked on cats inside the Seireitei! I mean, we know it works on the cats out in the Rukon District…"

"And pray tell, where in the Seireitei do you plan to lure those cats to? And better yet, where in the Seireitei did you see stray cats, for that matter? I should warn you ahead of time that our division will not take any measures to shield you from any noble whose pet you have offended." Hitsugaya scanned the room as he talked, his eyes glinted, as if saying '_Nothing can shield you from my wrath if you soil the name of our division.'_

There was a moment of awkward silence in the room. Then, Koyuki smiled embarrassedly and declared, "That was some good advice, Taichou! I think we are going to hold off with that at treat thing. Let's put those treats back before cousin Naiyuki finds them missing! Wanna come, Misawa?" Before he finished talking, the twins already began running away.

"Wait for me!" Misawa yelled, pretended that she forgot all manners, and dashed out after them.

They turned the coner and could no long be seen from the office, and Hagiwara and the young captain could hear their voices calling form down the hallway. "Good night, Taichou! Higiwara-san, don't forget us!"

_So they are going through with the plan_, Hagiwara thought, not sure to be happy or not.

Hitsugaya walked to his desk with a look of annoyance on his face. "They are a bad influence on Misawa." He muttered.

_You have _no_ idea_. Hagiwara agreed silently.

"Have they found a replacement for their shift tonight yet? From what I heard, the party is still on." The Captain inquired without looking up from the documents he started reading.

"Nothing is finalized yet, but they promised me that they'll have it sorted out soon." Hagiwara was glad that his captain couldn't really see him at the moment. He wasn't really a good liar.

"Make sure they don't forget about it." Hitsugaya ordered. "Those two, they couldn't even keep the name of the cousin straight in that stupid cat story. Keep on an eye on them and make sure they don't cause any trouble."

"Yes sir." Hagiwara replied. He felt a bit guilty betraying the trust of his captain to let his misfortune-prone protegee to patrol alone, but hey, he was also placing confidence in Misawa-chan's abilities and giving her a chance to further herself. That was a good deed, right? Besides, the plan to destroy Matsumoto-san's sake stash: that was for the greater good of the entire Division!

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><p>Misawa Rena liked her friends. She liked the Yukio twins and she would honor any deal made with them, but she never really liked patrolling. She could wait hours for something she was told to expect, but she didn't have the kind of patience to stay alert throughout her entire eight-hour patrol shift. She was drifting in and out of focus, and since she hadn't worked night shifts in a long time, she was not really awake by that time of the day either. When it began raining, the night hit a new low for her.<p>

She blamed her own lack of concentration for not noticing that disturbance earlier. It was deep into the woods. She couldn't see anything because of the darkness and the trees, and the rain wasn't helping matters either.

Hands hovering over the hilt of her zanpakutou, Misawa advanced into the woods cautiously and managed to get to a clearing where the hollow rested. It didn't look like much. In fact, it didn't seem too different from any other hollows she had encountered. If not for the fact the hollow was emitting immense amounts of spiritual pressure, she would have thought this was an ordinary hollow.

The hollow looked like a scorpion with a human torso and spider arms. It was examining itself, staring down at the gaping hope in chest of its own torso. The monster quickly noticed Misawa approaching and moved into what resembled an attack stance. Misawa pulled out her zanpakutou and held it in front of her in a defensive position. She was only about 20 meters away from the hollow, but she couldn't see it very well because the dark and the weather. The standstill lasted for a few seconds, but soon the hollow left out a roar and charged at Misawa. She dodged it easily by jumping into the air. The rain was cold and it hurt as Misawa sped past them, but she didn't mind.

As its name suggests, Mizu is a water-based elemental zanpakutou; its special ability was controlling water molecules. In shikai, it had control over any bodies of water it comes into contact with. Although that ability was admittedly kind of useless on a sunny day, in this wet weather Misawa could easily accumulate control over enough particles and morph them into small blades of ice. Attacks with those blades are controlled and maintained by her reiatsu, and the effects are similar to that of Senbonzakura's and Haineko's primary attacks.

Mizu is released by the command "rain", which, Rena mused bitterly at that moment, couldn't go any better with the weather. She could barely hear herself uttering the release command as the wind and rain rushed past her ears. As always, the blade of the zanpakutou turned into a form that looked and felt like ice, but is unbreakable. In this state, Mizu can control any body of water it touches and the blade itself can be morphed into any shape. Misawa preferred a katana, since she was taught to fight with them. If she could draw her opponent's blood with Mizu in a round of battle, she could freeze their blood. Sometimes she would change the length of her weapon in combat for that purpose, but it was harder to adjust to different-lengthen weapons during battle.

Ultimately, the strength of Mizu's special ability depends on the amount of reiatsu Misawa put into the attack and the mass of water that needed to be controlled. Sometimes, Misawa thought the amount of reiatsu control and dominance needed to control and use Mizu felt more like kido. Against more intelligent and stronger opponents, Misawa had seen Mizu's special ability become delayed, weakened, or even cancelled, depending on the reiatsu acting against her attack.

When Misawa came out of the jump and began to drop, her sword was already a shiny, transparent katana. She expected a difficult battle, but decided to start with the standard Shinigami extermination strike anyways. She used the advantage of her position in the air and brought the sword down straight toward the head of the hollow. However, the hollow didn't even look up when the blade sliced through its very being from the top. It seemingly couldn't move fast enough. While that wouldn't be surprising for a creature of this size, it certainly was unexpected from a hollow with this level of Reiatsu.

Mizu's special ability wasn't even needed. The strike alone shattered its mask and destroyed the hollow in mere seconds.

The sudden drop of spiritual pressure from her surrounding left Misawa feeling a little dizzy – too dizzy to prepare herself when another strong spiritual presence appeared somewhere about 2 kilometers from where she was. She had to take a few steps backwards and balance herself against a nearby tree. '_Is this the real disturbance that I noticed earlier?'_ She thought to herself, while getting on her feet again. The reiatsu was not only strong, but also unusually chaotic.

Misawa flashstepped to where the reiatsu was emitted from, and when she arrived, she suddenly realized why the disturbance was so violent: it wasn't one hollow there—there were two sources. One was another hollow just like the previous one, the other was a teenage boy about her age who was meters away from the hollow and looked as if he was too shocked to even take a breathe. The teen boy had a strong reiatsu, but he obviously didn't know how to control it. No wonder the hollow was interested in the boy. As of that moment, he was emitting so much reiatsu due to fear that Misawa found it hard to move. It was wild and uncontrolled, and clashed bluntly against the aura of the hollow.

_Lieutenant-class material to be sure_, Misawa thought, _need to let Recruitment know about this one!_

The hollow moved even closer to the boy. Misawa, with her zanpakutous still released, charged forward. This hollow, however, was remarkably faster than the last one. The hollow bounced back about 10 meters and turned to face a rather surprised Misawa, who position herself between the hollow and the youth while marveling at the speed of the Hollow.

"My, my! A little shinigami who came meet her miserable end." The hollow said mockingly with its coarse voice as he took Misawa's appearance in. She didn't look particular strong. No haori, no badge. To a hollow not privy to the gossips of the Seireitei, Misawa was just an unseated shinigami with a surprised expression on her face.

Misawa didn't reply. But she seemed to have forgotten to take that surprised expression off her face as her brain raced to figure out what to do.

"I can tell that you were the one who got rid of my incompetent brother just now." The hollow continued lazily, as he assumed that Misawa's lack of response was out of fear. "But I assure you I'm nothing like that defective fool and you get won't rid of me too easily. You are not even a lieutenant."

Misawa didn't bother responding to him. Her thoughts were becoming more organized now. Her priority at the moment, as an officer on patrol, is to ensure the safety the area, which meant protecting the boy behind her. She would need to shield him in battle. Now, the hollow's reiatsu was about the same as the last one's, but it appeared more intelligent and agile than the other one. It was certainly more confident, instigating a conversation in that tone that reminded Misawa of Captain Ichimaru. Its choice of words was also peculiar. "Defective" implied a planned creation process, but that's can't be the case, couldn't it?

The hollow seemed to have noticed Misawa spending more time inside her own head than the battlefield, and launched itself at her. However, Misawa had a few years of combat training, and instinctively held her blade up to block the attacks from the eight 'spider' arms. Soon she saw her disadvantage: the hollow is using eight weapons at the same time and she could only defend herself with one. She shifted herself so the hollow attack slipped off-centre and hit the ground. Misawa shoved the boy behind her backwards, now realizing how much more difficult her battle is with him restraining her movements.

"Beg for mercy, shinigami, and I'll let you die a little faster. You won't stand a chance against my 8 arms with that one blade, and let me remind you that my tail is also a perfectly capable and deadly weapon." The Hollow said with the same sarcastic tone, raising up its long tail behind it and waved it around as if to mock Misawa. It flared up its reiatsu again and readied itself another attack.

Misawa considered her options again. Should she strike first this round, push it the attack away from the boy, or should she stay on the defensive? Rather reluctantly, Misawa called Mizu forth again.

'_So you are speaking to me again? Mizu demanded haughtily. _

'_I think you understand the situation here as well as I. What should I do next?" Misawa asked. Be firm, her captain's voice ran in the back of her head, remind that zanpakutou that the shinigami is the master, not the other way around. _

'_Did you think that silly little kido trick of yours will work on me? No sane shinigami consciously puts up a barrier between themselves and their zanpakutou.' Mizu pointed out, and complained 'My attacks are weaker than they used to be because of you.' _

'_Good. Then I'll probably be marginally safer using you this time around. Now, this battle… What do I do?' Misawa asked again. _

'_Shame, it's too weak of a specimen. If you were up against a more competent opponent I would have shown you the true nature of Sora No Mizu's attacks, but it's not worth it on a weakling like this. Take it down with Bankai, a basic attack should suffice." Mizu decided. _

"_Basica attack in Bankai? Isn't that a bit of overkill? I was thinking of combining kido attacks or something…" _

'_Use Bankai. You may be able to repel him using Shikai, but we don't know that for certain. I thought you wanted the practice." Mizu ordered. _

'_I have no idea what I'm up against here. I've never seen a hollow like him!' Misawa noted in her thoughts. _

'_All the reasons to use Bankai? Don't leave anything up to chance! Besides, you could use the practice. You won't dare to use Bankai when there are people around you.' Mizu argued smugly. The ease with which it viewed the hollow made Misawa relax a bit. Mizu was a real pain to deal with sometimes, but one thing about it was certain: it wouldn't want Rena to die because that won't be advantageous in any way to a zanpakutou spirit. _

'_You don't sound like anything is up to chance here.' Misawa pointed out. 'I'm more comfortable using Shikai. Better maneuverability. I don't want this young man here getting hurt. And how is using Bankai not leaving things up to chance?' Misawa added. 'You are not exactly known for being reliable, you know.'_

'_I'll talk you through it. Com'on, think about it, Rena, I won't endanger your life. You have no idea what you are fighting here, you are not getting an observable advantage in Shikai; Bankai is a better bet.'_

'_It's raining buckets here. I call this very good advantage-"'_

'_Don't argue with me. You are wasting precious time here. Use Bankai. I'll talk you through your attacks. GO!' Mizu said finally, garnering up its spiritual, as if ready to burst in Bankai whether Misawa agreed or not. _

Misawa sighed. Mizu's Bankai, as she knew it, was a more elaborate version of her Shikai, but so much more complicated at the same time. First, there are these butterfly wings made of water growing out of Misawa's right wrist as she releases Bankai. Rena figured out a way to hide the wings and she is still trying to figure out how to use them. Mizu was very secretive about it, something about the 'true nature" of her Bankai. The basic attacking maneuver of Mizu's bankai was to control water, as far as Rena was concerned.

Water is a cluster of compound molecules at liquid state, but the water molecule is made up of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. In Shikai Mizu can control water at a molecular level so Misawa can change the shape and state of any body of water that came into contact with the zanpakutou's physical blade. Bankai takes this kind of control to an atomic level. Mizu create water from the hydrogen and oxygen in the air to aid her attacks, and could break water down into hydrogen and oxygen when fighting against those who need water to main their attack. That attack would nullify this zanpakutou's own special ability as well as the enemy's water-related abilities, but it evens the ground up for a plain swordfight.

Just like kido, the key to using Mizu was control. Misawa could control her own reiatsu, but she had less control over her zanpakutou. It was very keen to reveal its Shikai and Bankai. While that was beneficial for the shinigami on the surface, it was highly dangerous as well. The single most important reason why Misawa's training moved as quickly as it did was because she needed to achieve it out of sheer necessity: she was trying to bring sufficient control to ensure self-preservation.

"Sora no Mizu!" Misawa released her Bankai in a tone that hid her frustration and uncertainty. There were no significant changes to the shinigami and her blade. Misawa hide her wings and used only her right hand to hold her zanpakutou. She drew a circle with it in the air in front of her. In her mind's eye, she could see the circle.

'_Expand it, use your reiatsu and mind to move this circle around the hollow.' _Mizu instructed, and Misawa complied.

The hollow was completely ignorant of this barrier placed around him. All he knew was that the shinigami said something and drew a circle with her blade. He suspected it was Kido, but he didn't hear an incantation.

'_Everything single water particle within that circle is under your control. Every single drop of blood in that hollow's system, every single last water molecule in him is under your control.' Mizu reminded Misawa, as if she was doing this for the first time. _

'_Just to be sure, I don't have to touch the water with my blade like I had to do in Shikai?'_

'_That's primary advantage of your Bankai. How could you forget?'_

'_Because consistency is never your forte! Wait, what do I do with him? I think he's moving again.'_

'_Your barrier will move with him. Just follow my instructions.'_

Misawa agreed with her zanpakutou, not that she had much choice. Mizu had always been a bit sadistic. She instructed Misawa to decompose (chemically breakdown) the water molecules in the hollow's body.

Therefore, the hollow suffered a rather painful and slow death. If Misawa had things her way, she would have probably just frozen the monster solid, but Mizu is, well, not very humanitarian.

'_This is the last time I follow your method of execution in battle." _Misawa declared to her zanpakutou spirit after the battle. The only response she received was a proud laugh. Mizu knew it was an empty threat.

Misawa sheathed her sword loudly to block out that cold laughter inside her soul. Then she realized during her battle with the Hollow, she temporarily forgot about the teenager who was standing behind her the whole time and breathing very loudly and quickly at the moment.

Wheeling around, Misawa saw that the youth was still frozen with shock, only much worse than earlier. _'I doubt watching a hollow's body literally disintegrated right in front of him made him feel any better, no thanks to you, Mizu.'_

Misawa approached the boy and put a hand on his shoulder. "Everything's all right. _It_ is gone; it won't bother you ever again." She said softly. It sounded strained, though, because she had to make sure she was audible over the rain.

The boy turned to look at her. He blinked a few times, and started to breath deeply and rapidly. His reiatsu started to fluctuate violently.

"Calm down. It's all right!" Misawa reassured him again, but saw no improvement. She signed and tried another approach. "Let's talk about something else. I'm Rena, Misawa Rena. I'm a shinigami. What's your name?"

"Uh…Takeo. Nakamura Takeo." He responded slowly, and his breathing evened out a bit after this.

"Okay, Nakamura-kun, where do you live?"

"2nd District." He said, still rather woodenly, as if refusing to let his emotions get involved in this moment.

Misawa smiled, with a tinge of bitterness that Nakamura neither detected nor understood. "Why don't you show me? I'll walk you back; nothing can hurt you while I'm around." She said softly with a smile.

Nakamura Takeo just nodded numbly, and started walking toward home, with Misawa right beside him. The rain was still coming down hard when Misawa followed Nakamura back into the streets of the Second District, feeling as miserable as she did when she last saw it five years ago.

"Who's waiting for you at home?" Misawa asked, attempting to strike a conversation and distract herself from the rhythmic and strangely melancholy sound of raindrops hitting whatever surface it could find.

The young man seems to have understood her intentions, and he began to talk. It was a mindless ramble, barely audible over the sound of rain, but Misawa hung onto every word. She hung onto the cold she felt as she walked uncovered in the rain. She hung onto the sound of his voice, how it trembled from the cold, how nice it must sound when he was happy and healthy.

She wanted to hang onto anything and everything, so she wouldn't remember, so she could pretend to forget that she abandoned the people she called friends and family who once lived here.

Nakamura reached a destination eventually: a decent-looking house by a smaller almost across the town from the forest. Leaving him at the gate, Misawa rushed back onto the main road in the second district; she knew from experience that it was the quickest way across town.

Misawa wasn't paying attention to the sides of the street as she flashstepped through it, but she couldn't help but stop in front of the apothecary shop where she worked when she went past it.

It was closed, but there would be someone sleeping just meters away from the wooden door. If people needed emergency medicine, they could just knock on door to wake that person up. Misawa wondered whose job it was tonight. Madam Chikasawa, the owner herself? Takako the accountant? Tetsui or Ami, one of the apprentices? Perhaps Kenji had moved into the store now, or maybe they got a new counter girl to replace her…

When the nostalgia became too much, it was Misawa's cue to get moving again. However, a voice stopped her dead in her tracks – a voice she shouldn't be hearing here in the Second District.

"What's ya hurry, Misawa-chan?"

Maybe it was the accent. Maybe it was his voice. Maybe it's the way he said it.

Misawa didn't know how, but with every syllable he uttered, Ichimaru Gin sent a fresh wave of sheer terror through her being.

_"Oh… hell."_ She thought, and re-defined "rock-bottom" for the third time that night.

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><p>-to be continued -<p> 


	4. Chapter 4: Sanity Interrupted

**Chapter 4: Sanity Interrupted**

Like all normal Shinigami, Misawa Rena was healthily terrified of a good portion of the Gotei 13 captains. However, two of those one-man-armies could easily upgrade Misawa's fear to pure mortification by simply making an appearance. One of them was waving casually at her this very moment.

One thing Misawa feared above all else in Soul Society was Mayuri "always-looking-for-specimens" Kurotsuchi, and Ichimaru Gin would be a tie or a close second to that.

And as far as Misawa was concerned, running into Captain Ichimaru all the way out in the Second District where her captain can't hear her screams, when she was alone, was one of her worst personal nightmares.

Slowly, Misawa turned around to face this perpetual grinner. He was standing under the awning of another shop and was covered from rain, but judging from the state of his clothing and hair, he was as soaked as she was.

Misawa felt a chill running through her at the thought that Ichimaru was out all night and possibly waiting for this.

"Good Evening, Ichimaru-Taichou." Misawa said formally and bowed to him. Creepy or not, he was a captain and formalities were formalities.

"It's already mornin' now, Misawa-chan." Ichimaru replied and his enigmatic expression still frozen to his face. "Gorgeous weather we're having, isn't it?"

_Since when was bone-chilling cold rain coming down in buckets considered good weather?_ Misawa wasn't sure if Ichimaru was joking or not; she could never tell with that face of his.

Ichimaru stepped out into the rain and walked to the middle of the street, and the unseated youngster turned so she always faced him directly. What would he do next? He liked to keep people guessing, Misawa remembered. She heard that sometimes he would just sneak up on people with his knife pulled out against their necks.

"Oh, look at this, Misawa-chan! A nice, deserted, wide street and just two of us here – almost looks like a training ground, isn't it? How about a nice bit of sparrin'?"

"What?" Misawa couldn't even politely disguise her shock this time. _He has got to be kidding_, Misawa hoped, _he couldn't possibly just plan to charge at her with a zanpakutou, right?_

"Yeah, that's fine idea, isn't it?" Ichimaru said, mostly to himself. "Alright, Misawa-chan. Here I come!" Widening his smile, he pulled out his zanpakutou and launched forward before Misawa could protest further.

Desperately, Misawa pulled out Mizu and blocked the simple strike Ichimaru started with. "Ichimaru-Taichou!" She pleaded, "Please! We… we are not really permitted to raise our blades against Captains!"

"Oh, you read the rule wrong, Misawa-chan. You are not supposed to release your zanpakutous in the presence of someone ranked higher than you, and not in the presence of other Lieutenants and Captains." Ichimaru explained, and his smile turned a bit grin-like for a moment. "But that's alright. I'm authorizing it. Ya see, I couldn't fall asleep tonight so I decided to take a stroll, and when I walked near the outer Second District I felt a nice little fight going on. That was you, wasn't it? Good job with that hollow, by the way. Now all I have on my mind is to get a nice bit of sparring in. What do you think, Misawa-chan? "

Misawa stared at him incredulously. Then again, that was probably her expression the entire time since she saw him. His story made no sense, and his request was even more absurd than that.

"Ichimaru-taichou," Misawa suddenly had a brilliant idea, or so she thought, "I am on patrol tonight and I really need to get back to my post. Um, we can spar some other time?"

Ichimaru was still smiling. "Oh Misawa-chan, it's just past 5-am now. Your shift already ended, so there's no point rushing back there now, isn't it?" He lied about that one, but Misawa didn't know. "I'll drop a line with the Tenth Division and tell them to not give you too hard a time about that." He actually pulled out a hell butterfly from his sleeves and sent it fluttering off into the rain.

_Oh hell_. Misawa thought again to herself. _He really did come prepared._

"Now, then Misawa-chan, Shikai out! I can't guarantee that you'll live through this if you don't use Shikai!"

Misawa finally learned that reasoning with Ichimaru was a lost cause, so she didn't wait for him to finish saying "Shoot to kill, Shinsou" before bouncing out of the way using flashstep. If you can't beat them, run. Her survival mantra from the younger days echoed through her head, but how could she run now?

"Rain, Mizu!" She yelled out desperately, and turned around to block that unnaturally long blade with her now transparent one.

Misawa thought Ichimaru would withdraw this attack now that the blades clashed, but instead his just pressed on. Sensing that Mizu was seriously disadvantaged in this situation, she jumped up and over to the other side of shinsou, only to have it coming toward while she was in mid-ai. She used Mizu to defend while she landed.

"What's with all the dodging, Misawa-chan? Your zanpakutou's shikai must be able to do more than just make your blade look kindda pretty, right?" Ichimaru asked as he withdraw his blade and flashstepped to the other end of the street, having his attack coming in at a different angle.

However, his words registered with Misawa, and when Shinsou clashed with Mizu again, she activated Mizu's special ability and began to freeze Shinsou's blade with the rainwater constantly coming down. The mass of ice that amassed along the long blade had stopped it from changing it's length, and Misawa used this moment to back away again.

'_Why are you dodging? This is an opening! Attack!' Mizu urged. _

'_He is a captain! I can't go on the offensive! If he doesn't take off my head for it, martial law will!' Misawa thought in panic._

'_I think he'll take your head regardless of your duelling etiquettes." Mizu said drily. _

Misawa was a bit too busy to notice the smile briefly disappear for Ichimaru's face for a few seconds as he examined the state of his zanpukutou. Then, with a violent shake and surge of reiatsu, he broke Shinsou free from Mizu's ice and this time, it came at Misawa with far more speed and techniques in its attacks.

Misawa had a grim sense of doom as she tried to defend. She must have offended him with that stunt earlier. Her swordsmanship was nothing compared to Ichimaru's, and she doubted she would have fared much better even if she intentionally went all out and attacked. She definitely was defending with everything she could think up. That included ice shields made from rainwater to protect herself at certain angles, but it was far from enough.

When Ichimaru pulled back this time, Misawa managed to defend her vital areas but other her arms had some small cuts. Ichimaru finally sheathed his zanpakutou and Misawa did the same.

"Oh, Misawa-chan, you are no fun to play with. Are you injured?" He asked, without the slightest trace of concern in his voice.

"Just some minor cuts, Ichimaru-Taichou. Thank you for taking it easy on me." Misawa replied bowed. She knew he could easily sliced her arm off using any of those attacks, but maybe he decided maiming Hitsugaya's subordinates wasn't the best way to start the day.

"Well, we should get that looked at. Oh, look, how convenient that an apothecary shop is right here! Lets go and get you something!" Within the same second he finished that sentence, Ichimaru was by Misawa's side and slightly pushing her toward a shop. She suddenly remembered that she was still just outside her old workplace.

Upon closer look, Misawa noticed that though most of the stores were still "closed," there were people sticking their heads out from gaps in doors or windows to watch this random fight.

The Apothecary Shop opened before Ichimaru could knock. It was Tetsui the apprentice. He had a look of sheer terror on his face, and couldn't move a muscle after he opened the door.

"It's alright, Tetsui. I'll take this." Madam Chikasawa, the owner of the shop, entered the shop from the back, and opened the door further to let Ichimaru and Misawa in. Misawa looked around the shop and saw that Ami, Takao, and Kenji were all there, clustered in the back. Judging by their wet clothing, they must have rushed to the shop after they heard about the fight. They looked at their old colleague being ushered in, surprise and confusion etched across all their faces.

Chikasawa looked like a woman in her late forties. She had a kind, motherly air about her, and Misawa remember that she was the only woman in the Rukon District who had healing powers. Having studied Kido, Misawa now know that what the Madam did was a very crude technique, but it was better than nothing, and being in the Rukon District, they had nothing else. Misawa temporarily mused with the idea that maybe Madam Chikasawa used to be a shinigami, but did not give much thought to it.

"Good morning," Madam Chikasawa greeted, "How may I help you, Ichimaru-Taichou?"

That stumped Rena, and apparently everyone else in the shop as well. She didn't know that the Madam could recognize Ichimaru. How? Could it be that…

"Nothing for me, Chikisawa-senpai!" Ichimaru's reply was something of a shocking reveal to Rena. "Ya see, I was just sparring out there with Misawa-chan here and silly ol' me put a few cuts on her. Misawa-chan is too good of a girl and didn't dare to strike back properly." He paused, and looked around the room, smiling wider at how everyone was staring at Misawa with sympathy. He continued, "Of course, now it wouldn't do for me to just ship her off to her captain all wounded up like this, and I was wondering if I could sneak her into the Fourth Division or something, but when I looked up, I saw the sign for the your shop, and I was thinking, 'Hey, isn't that Chikasawa-senpai's shop!' And what do ya know? It is!"

Madam Chikasawa smiled. If she thought Ichimaru's story was absurd, she didn't say anything. "Of course I could take a look at Rena-chan's wounds for you." She said politely, but she didn't realize her mistake.

Ichimaru's smile slipped into something that resembled a madman's grin. "I never mentioned Misawa-chan's given name, Senpai! Do you know each other?"

Rene could see the forced smile freeze on the Madam's face. The Madam just realized she leaked information Misawa had kept private, and wasn't sure how to proceed. Sensing her unease, Misawa responded quickly, "I used to work here, Ichimaru-Taichou!"

"Ah really! What a great coincidence this is! How come you never mentioned to me that you used to work in an apothecary shop, Rena-chan?"

Misawa cringed at Ichimaru's switching to calling her by her given name, but his question was easy enough to answer. "We haven't really met and talked before today, Ichimaru-Taichou."

Ichimaru laughed, if it could be called laughing. He feigned embarrassment and explained to the audience in the shop, "Oh, my mistake! Rangiku loves to talk about you, Misawa-chan! It felt like I've known you for so long! Chikasawa-Senpai must know about this habit of mine, right? Kind of get caught up in my own head and forget everyone else!"

Madam Chiksawa forced a smile. "Yes, Ichimaru-Taichou. Quite intriguing… Now about let's take a look at Rena-chan's arm now?"

* * *

><p>The night patrol shift ended at five in the morning. Hitsugaya Toushirou would be in his office by five-thirty.<p>

Today, he was there since five, because he knew there was a party last night. He always woke up early on days after large parties, as way of persuading the party goers to quit and clean up before he was up. He wasn't too happy about the party last night either. The Yukio twins were supposed to be on patrol. Hitsugaya knew they were going to trade their shifts, but he didn't know they managed to talk Misawa into taking it alone. There wasn't a rule against that, but it was just more dangerous.

Misawa knew he wouldn't like it, so she didn't tell him. Unfortunately, this minor staffing change for a routine duty like patrol happens to be one of those things that didn't require his Captain's Seal, and he didn't find out until the shift already began. The Third Seat, for some unfathomable reasons, agreed to help them hide that plan from the young captain. He already got an earful from Hitsugaya for that last night, the highlight being it was against the law to deceive your captain. If there wasn't something about Matsumoto's sake stash thrown in there, Hagiwara just might have gotten a demotion for it.

Hitsugaya felt a rush of frustration set in. Why was it harder to establish authority when females get involved? Hinamori wouldn't address him properly no matter how many times he asked of her. Matsumoto never ever did her fair share of work as his lieutenant. Misawa always called him "Taichou" and probably did more of Matsmoto's work than Matsumoto herself in the past two years, but the moment she put down the brush and picked up a sword, she became trouble personified.

He knew there was a stubborn and childish vein somewhere in Misawa's head. A rookie shinigami, patrolling alone, with an uncontrollable zanpakutou, near residential areas. If anything goes wrong, it would be enough paper work to bury him until next week. Now, statistically, out of twelve patrol shifts his division has to do every night, he only receives about five incident reports and at most two combat reports every month. Chances are it would be an uneventful shift during a calm night, but Misawa's life story was an unfortuante combination of "statistical singularity" and "anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

As if to prove him right ,Third Seat Hagiwara Tsuyoshi knocked on the door of Captain Hitsugaya's officer at five-thirty, half-an-hour earlier than he normally would. He was in charge of supervising the night shifts and usually wouldn't come in until six. The officers would step down from duty and check in at five, take about an hour to fill in a routine report chart, and the Thrid Seat would have it all ready to be handed in to his captain by six. Today was out of routine, and that was never good.

Hitsugaya called Hagiwara in from his desk. He only needed one glance at his Third Seat's face to see that something was wrong. The officer fingered the pile of reports in his hands nervously, and waited for his captain to ask.

"What is it?" Hitsugaya asked impatiently as he stretched out his hand demanding the reports.

"My apologies, Taichou," The Hagiwara began, "We lost track of one member of our patrol team; she didn't report back when the shift ended, and is still unaccounted for. I asked around all the other division's night patrol teams and even around our barracks, but…."

"Who was it?" The young captain cut straight to the chase. He already had an inkling of idea at the phrase "one member." _Trouble personified_. He just had to come up with that phrase to describe her, didn't he?

"It's Misawa, sir." The Officer answered hesitantly. At this moment, he could practically see the colours draining out of their captain's already-pale visage, and could feel it mirroring on his own. He added quickly, "Three other teams nearby verified that a spiritual disturbance took place within her assigned area after three o'clock in the morning. A short battle took place soon and from what out Division members could tell, Misawa came out victorious. We saw nothing indicating that she was injured, but she is nowhere to be found either."

"Do we have the morning shift searching for her as well?" Hitsugaya asked. Although he was asking about others' actions, he already reached for Hyourinmaru and was ready to head out himself. And when he comes back, Hagiwara will have hell to pay for permitting Misawa to take that shift alone, he decided.

"Yes, we do, but we…" Hagiwara stopped when he saw a hell butterfly flutter into the office. It looked like it flew quite a bit through the rain.

Since the message was addressed to this office, both Hitsugaya and Hagiwara could hear the message. Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes at the sound of Ichimaru's voice. _"Message for Division Ten administration from Ichimaru Gin-Taichou: Hello Hitsugaya-Taichou! I'm gonna keep Misawa-chan here for a bit of sparring, so don't give her a hard time when she comes back late from patrolling! Have a good day! End Message." _

The message left the two officials temporarily speechless. Hagiwara's first reaction was _'What?'_ but he kept that thought to himself. He looked at his captain, who frowned and sent the butterfly away.

"Well, Taichou? Should I just leave Misawa-chan as she is, then?" He asked uncertainly.

Hitsugaya scowled. "Yes, do that. Halt the search efforts and go back to regular patrol." He ordered.

Hagiwara quickly excused himself. His neck was just saved by Ichimaru, of all people. It was too good to be true, but he didn't want to be around to when others do find out that it wasn't true.

Once again alone in his office, Hitsugaya began to mull over the last five minutes of his life while half-hearted checking his reports. He wondered how Misawa was faring 'sparring' with Ichimaru, but decided that he didn't want to leave that to imagination, and he'll just work on repairing the mental damage after she comes back. Like most normal people in Soul Society, Misawa always got scared out of her wits by Ichimaru, but miraculously, and with the help of many many roundabout detours and hiding behind walls, she managed to never run into him alone until today.

Surely enough, when Ichimaru walked Misawa into the Tenth Division Office sometime around six, she looked pale as a sheet, and wore a permanent expression of discomfort on her face, complete with a forced smile.

"Good morning, Hitsugaya-Taicho!" Ichimaru greeted cheerfully. Hitsugaya noticed that his haori and uniform were soaked through and through; he obviously was out all night.

Misawa, on the other hand, was wearing a dry albeit old yukata that Hitsuaya was sure did not belong to her. She was holding a bundle in one hand and an umbrella in another. "Good morning, Taichou." She said, bowing. Her expression eased up when she saw her captain, but she still looked pale and tired.

"Ichimaru. Misawa." Hitsugaya greeted them coolly, but Ichimaru seemed to have taken no offence and kept grinning.

"Alright, ma work here 's done! Just wanted ta make sure Rena-Chan here get back safely. She must be tired, fighting that battle, then walking that kid home, then sparring wit' me. Didn't wanna send 'er back alone. Might'ave an accident or something!" Ichimaru explained cheerfully as he turned to walk away. "Good day!"

Ichimaru left the two members of Division Ten in an awkward moment of silence when they just looked at each other. Then, like a taking a needle to a ballon, Misawa left out a deep breath and practically collapsed on the ground the moment Hitsugaya opened his mouth to say something.

The young captain rushed forward to help his protegee up and led her to one of Matsumoto's couches. She sat on the couch, curled herself up, and began breathing heavily.

Hitsugaya watched her for a few minutes, and finally couldn't bear it anymore and asked, "What happened? You look … not well."

Misawa breathed deeply before replying. "Do you remember how he said I might have an accident if he left me alone just now?" Her diction and tone lacked the politeness and reverence she usually reserved for him, but given her condition, Hitsugaya did not take offence.

"Yes." He agreed honestly.

"Did it sort of sound like a threat, like he was going to make sure that an accident does happen?"

"Well, coming from him, yes." The prodigy captain admitted, rather disturbed by the implication of Ichmaru's words.

"Now imagine listening to that for the past two hours." Misawa said through clenched teeth.

Histugaya almost laughed – it was a noise that was probably as close to laughter as it could get coming from him. She glared at him, reprimanding him for this horrible act of schadenfreude – laughing at other's misfortunes.

"What exactly happened?" Hitsugaya demanded, serious again. "You left your post during patrol."

"I ran into two hollows during patrol, and one of them corned a kid from the 2nd district. After I exterminated those hollows I took the kid back, and I ran into Ichimaru." Misawa said plainly. Hitsugaya noticed that she spoke as if running into Ichimaru was the explanation for everything.

"But you still shouldn't have left your patrol post without telling anyone." Hitsugaya pointed out.

Misawa stared at him with an incredulous expression and said, "Taichou, after I left my post, I had to spar with Ichimaru-Taichou, get cut up by him, get healed, unwittingly reveal to him where and with whom I used to live and work with, and get scared half to death by every other thing he says." She blurted out, as if she was sharing a drawn-out nightmare to a close confidate. "And he talks a lot!" She added as an afterthought.

Right, need to repair mental damage, Hitsugaya thought as he stared at Misawa's mad expression. She still considered Ichimaru good enough an explanation for everything. He wondered if he should send her to the Fourth Division to get a sedative.

"Calm down, Misawa! He is just a Captain. I am one too, am I not? I haven't eaten you yet. And neither did Ichimaru." Hitsugaya pointed out logically.

"He implicitly threatened my life, my professional integrity, and forced me to reveal information that could be held hostage against me. And he also landed five slashes on both my arms!"

"You are overreacting! Ichimaru just does that to people. It's not like he has time to secretly plot against every… wait, he injured you?" Hitsugaya suddenly noticed, and became a bit more concerned.

Misawa nodded and explained "He took me to where I used to work and had them healed. And he persuaded them into giving me an umbrella and some dry cloth. But when I say persuaded I mean… you know, it's the thing he does with the smile and …ugh!" Misawa ended her sentence in a shudder.

Seeing the lack of improvement in Misawa's condition, Hitsugaya wondered if dousing her with icy water will wake her up from this traumatized stint. However, since she was cold and wet out in the rain when she met Ichimaru earlier, icy water just make her freak out more. He sighed. "You know, you need to stop being scared of him. Matsumoto wouldn't be happy to hear that. Besides, you aren't this scared of the other captains, are you? You aren't scared of me." He pointed out.

"But you don't look and talk like a maniacal .. maniac." Misawa argued, but stumbled on her last few words.

"Five years working under me and you still ignore my policies and go behind my back, but two hours with Ichimaru and you can't even string sentences together anymore. Maybe I should try that maniacal thing." Hitsugaya said dryly, but he was secretly amused. Having worked with him for years, Misawa could detect the traces of amusement on his face and glared back at him for that.

"I meant it as a compliment, Taichou. Please don't take up that 'maniacal' thing. It can't be good for the division's mental wellbeing." She pleaded. "Besides, I've learned my lesson. I'll never go on any mission alone ever again, and I definitely won't leave my post where my comrades can't find me. If I could, I'd stay behind you whenever we have to leave the Division Barracks. If some kid is traumatized, he can just sit there and be traumatized and get rained on. Somebody else can walk him back and run into Ichimaru or something."

Hitsugaya examined her carefully once again, and muttered, "Yeah, you've suffered enough."

Misawa raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, I was going to punish you for patrolling alone, leaving your post and not checking in on time, but I think you've suffered enough today. Go back and get some sleep Misawa. Entertaining as you are, you are no good in the office when you are half-insane, and you are not exactly presenting your mental faculties too well at the moment." Hitsugaya ordered, still emotionless but laced with an extra little something else there.

Misawa nodded numbly. If she found her captains elusive sense of humour positively un-funny, she was too tired to say so. It seemed like her captain's prompt reminded her how tired she was, and she yawned. "Yes, Taichou. Thank you. " She bowed and stumbled out of the office.

"Be sure to come in for the afternoon shift!" Hitsugaya yelled after her. _I'll remind her that she has to write a combat report, two incident reports, and finish the regular patrol forms after she wakes up and is a bit saner_, he thought.

Looking at the clock on the wall, Hitsugaya realized that it was barely six-thirty. Office hours wouldn't start for another two hours and a half and already he felt kind of exhausted dealing with Misawa just now. He frowned at the wet bundle Misawa brought back with her after patrol – it must have contained her wet uniform.

Maybe Misawa was right after all, he thought darkly, Ichimaru Gin was good enough an explanation for a lot of pain and evil.

-To Be Continued-

AN: hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review and tell me what you think. I'm playing around with different styles of writing right now and I would love some feedback! Thank you!


	5. Chapter 5: What Could Go Wrong

**Chapter 5: What Could Go Wrong**

"Solo? One month?" Misawa repeated incredulously, as Rukia proudly announced her newest assignment: one month in the Human World. Even though it was already Rukia's second extended mission in the Human World, it was still considered a high-difficulty mission by common standards. Misawa had never done one herself. Her captain took her on short missions, usually only about one to three days, to fight hallows that can't be dealt by the regular officer stationed there.

Rukia had a pleased look on her face as she and Misawa put their dinner trays away in one of the common dinning halls and settle back down on some empty benches. The noblewoman would have felt slightly guilty about showing off in front of Misawa, but she didn't care enough at the moment. She was nervous at the beginning, mainly about having to go back to the Manor and report to her brother, but now Captain Ukitake took care of that, and she felt better already.

"Oh, wow, congratulations! I'm jealous!" Misawa said, laughing with her friend.

"You shouldn't be! Hitsugaya-Taichou gives you much tougher work than Ukitake Taichou does for me!"

Misawa smiled, and didn't respond. That was true, even if they were mostly in Soul Society. Hitsugaya still planned a lot of supervision for her during missions, but he let her get more involved with the higher-levels' duties. In fact, Matsumoto told her in secret that Taichou already put her name down for Fifth Seat in the next round of promotions. Misawa hasn't told anyone else yet, though. She thought she might jinx it if word got around.

"Oh, before I forget," Misawa suddenly remembered, and beckoned Rukia to closer. Dropping her voice to a loud whisper, Misawa announced, "It's not official yet, but when you come back, you are going to have to call your old friend Abarai-Fukutaichou!"

Rukia's eyes widened. "What? Really? Nii-sama…"

"I heard from Hinamori-Fukutaichou the day before yesterday!" Misawa said with a proud grin, feeling honored to be the first ones to receive the classified information. "That makes three lieutenants coming out of the Eleventh Division, isn't it? Wasn't Iba-san also from the Eleventh Division? Then there's the Kusajishi-Fukutaichou herself." She remarked curiously as an afterthought.

"Well, true, but Renji also makes the third lieutenant to have come from the Fifth Division. Him, Kira-san, and Hinamori-san were all in the Fifth Division when they first graduated; they were even classmates at the academy." Rukia recalled.

"Wow, that must have been…?"

"About forty years ago." Rukia said, then, dropping into a more melancholy mood. "I haven't talked to Renji since a bit before then. Or he hasn't talked to me since. I don't know…. When I got adopted, we just sort of … stopped."

"Um, you can go talk to him now! Give him the good news first! Or almost-first! Congratulate him!" Misawa suggested randomly. To be honestly, she had no idea what to do; she only knew that Abarai Renji and Rukia were friends from long ago, but she had no idea about the context of their friendship nor what happened. Besides, she never met Abarai personally and never talked him before.

"It's…uh… complicated. Not THAT kind of complicated, of course. But you wouldn't understand. You are from the second district. You wouldn't understand." Rukia smiled sadly, apologetic.

It was an unwritten rule among the Shinigami that you don't inquire about other people's past. The past is usually a dreadful thing, especially for those who came from the outer Rukon Districts. Misawa was one of the luckier ones, coming from the Second District. Even so, she preferred to keep certain details secrets. Well, until Ichimaru got that information out of her this morning, that is.

The Past was such a simple concept, yet probing into it was so dangerous. Most people either haboured in their hearts the memories of poverty and bitterness they alleviated themselves from, or the memories of loved ones they left behind to pursue this path. Or both. Or neither but some other terrors Misawa's sheltered mind couldn't fathom.

Even Misawa, who by all means and measures was lucky, had things she'd rather keep to herself. No one knew Kenji was the closest thing she had to a family before coming to Tenth Division, nor how Mrs. Chikasawa taught Misawa how to make a living back out in the Rukon District. Even the Madam herself didn't reveal until this morning that she used to be a single-digit-seat on the Fourth Division, before retiring.

Misawa supposed that she has no business inquiring after the lives, past or present, of those in the Chikasawa's Apothecary Shop anymore. She chose to cut those ties in favour of the opportunities within the walls of the Seireitei. The fear and guilt still plagued her every time she passes through the Second District for a mission, but she kept them to herself. Everybody kept secrets.

Secrets. Maybe that was where real danger lied.

Misawa's moods only lifted as they parted, when Rukia promised to visit Misawa on the first day back.

Life went on as it always did, but unknown to them at the time – it won't for much longer.

* * *

><p>It was a bright sunny morning and Misawa Rena was working diligently at her desk. Well, she was trying to work diligently. Then she yawned, again, for probably the twentieth time that morning.<p>

Her captain finally broke his silence, and reprimanded, "Do I dare to ask why you are so tired this early during the day? If you have work in the morning, you should come prepared, and that means wide awake. You should know better, Misawa."

"With all due respect, Taichou, for most us, when we come to work in the morning, morning was 9:00am, not 5:30am. That's quite a bit of an adjustment." Misawa snapped. She was cranky. Her Captain ultimately did not let her little mishap during patrol go unpunished, and demanded that for the next month, she would be responsible for finalizing the night shift patrol reports. That meant she had to start work three-and-half hours earlier than she was used to.

What terrified her more was that her punishment could have been a lot worse. This one month was for leaving her patrol area during her shift. Hitsugaya-Taichou would have stretched it to two months if Ichimaru wasn't responsible for Misawa's inability to report in at the end of the shift on time. Apparently leaving gaps in the Seireitei's patrol network was a serious security risk and offence.

"Why don't you take five minutes and make yourself some tea?" Hitsugaya Toushirou suggested nonchalantly, as if the snap in Misawa's complaint couldn't reach him.

"If I burn myself with the kettle because I'm so sleepy, does that still count as being injured on the job?" Misawa asked with a half-hearted cheeky smile.

"If you are awake enough to attempt at humour, then I see no reason why I should hear more yawns. Go back to your reports."

Misawa made a distinctive "hmph" noise and went back to the papers as instructed. Or so she thought. Because the next thing she knew, she was being woken up by her captain roughly shaking her shoulder.

She yawned again when she tried to wake up, at which Hitsugaya shook her a bit harder, and yelled "Misawa!" in a very impatient tone. He must be really annoyed with people sleeping in the office, Misawa thought groggily.

"Yes sir?" She asked as she finally managed to open her eyes and look at him.

Hitsugaya's frown was ever-present and when he saw that she was awake, he briskly explained, "A hollow extermination request came in from the 39th District; it is assessed to be at seventeen-to-thirteen-seat level. I'm sending the co-fifteenth seats – the Yukio twins, and two new recruits we just got out of the academy to observe. You are going along to guide and protect the new recruits."

"You are not coming?" Misawa asked in surprise. They both knew she tend to have bad luck when her captain wasn't around her. Maybe missing his skills had something to do with how battle always turned out to be tougher than expected for her, but she wasn't sure. In the end, Hitsugaya just generally avoided sending Misawa out without him.

"I have a Captain's Meeting in a few minutes. I can't miss it for a mission at this level. The Yukio twins should be fine; you are just there to talk the new recruits through it."

"Alright, sir. When are we leaving?"

"As soon as possible. Go wait for them by the front gate." Hitsugaya instructed. "And becareful out there." He added seriously.

Misawa nodded and left hastily. The mission chased all senses of sleep out of her. She wasn't sure what time it was already, but she was still pretty happy that the mission got her out of the office. It didn't sound too bad either. If she learned anything from her last time on patrol, it was simply: keep an entourage. Yukio twins were. It couldn't be too bad, right? Even the sight of uprooted trees on the site of the attack didn't damp her optimism.

The team found the hollow easily out in the wilderness, where there were few other signs of life. The hollow looked like one of your everyday stupid-but-so-big-it's-scary type of hollow, a very big and mutilated minotaur-like figure. However, it was still emitting enough reiatsu that Misawa asked the two new recruits to stand up and only take defensive actions.

When the opportunity looked fair, the Yukio Twins attacked. They jumped up and each took down an arm successfully with one strike. Daiyuki and Koyuki regrouped with Misawa on the ground and were planning a next step when something went horribly wrong: the hollow's limbs regenerated, almost instantaneously. It didn't seem like it was powerful enough to regenerate so quickly, but Misawa's senses told her that it had some extra stock of reitsu that it could borrow from. That made no theoretical sense but it was only way to explain the abnormalities in spiritual movements that Misawa detected.

The hollow wasted no time in putting its new arms to good use.

The fist, size of wagon, crushed down where the three shinigami stood, and they all had to use flashstep to dodge. Even the two new recruits watching from twenty meters away were knocked off their feet by the impact.

"Run back and report that we have a complication here!" Misawa yelled, and those two ran as fast as they could in the direction of the Seireitei. They probably didn't care that they were running in the direction of the Seireitei—they might have been more concerned about running away from the hollow.

"Are you two alright?" Misawa yelled in the Yukio twins' general direction. She heard two yeses, and was satisfied. Within the second, they were by her side again and each flanked her. There was a bit of irony in that that Misawa technically ranked below them and should take orders from them, but those two knew well enough that given their current abilities, Misawa was their only hope out of this alive.

"What do you want us to do, Rena-chan?" Daiyuki asked quickly.

"I'll—WHAT!" Before Misawa could get a word out, the hollow attacked again – this time with a cero blast.

Misawa put up a kido barrier quickly without incantation, which was shattered within seconds but enough time for Misawa to release Mizu and use it to counter the cero.

The two officers were too stunned to even move. Misawa surged ahead and to attack with Mizu.

She was very, very annoyed. There were hallows, small fry, and they are alright to deal with albeit a bit boring. There were Menos, and they were alright to deal with albeit a bit tiring. What she never liked were hollows that were too strange. Big and agile and talking, like the one she met in patrol a few weeks ago? Rare and theoretically possible with high amounts of reiatsu, not that Misawa ever figured out where those reiatsu came from. Today, this one that was not a Menos and still used Cero? This was too strange, to the point that Misawa didn't even dare to say for sure that it wasn't a Menos. She hoped it wasn't; she definitely needed bankai for that and no one besides her captain and herself could know about that.

Misawa started with a basic extermination strike to the centre of its mask. It landed but barely dented the mask. Misawa regretted that attack immediately, and thought she should have went for a spot where she could hope to draw blood instead. With a dry blade, she couldn't use Mizu's primary special ability. Misawa retreated quickly to dodge two powerful arm swings aiming at her, and landed mid-air.

She ignored Mizu's calls to switch into Bankai. Despite finally having a good performance with it during patrol a few weeks ago, Misawa still didn't dare to use Bankai when people were around.

As the hollow was recovering from firing the ceros, Misawa flashstepped back around it and used an offensive kido spell at the back of its head, disorienting it again. During this opening, she attacked with a sword-strike backed by a strong surge of reiatsu, cracked the hollow's mask.

The hollow tumbled back and howled in pain, and that's when Misawa became distracted. It was a shinigami's reiatsu close by, masked very well but Misawa could tell it would have been very strong. She took her mind off the hollow for a few seconds to focus on that reiatsu. It surged quickly and before Misawa could remember where she felt it before, an impossible pain hit her left shoulder.

Her eyes widened in shock as a blade she never saw coming retracted at a speed she could barely catch with her eyes. Another memory from that night on patrol, far scarier than the hollow, flashed to her mind.

Shinsou must have hit a tendon, maybe even severed it. Misawa couldn't tell. All she could feel was the pain, and realized that her left arm was no longer hanging onto her zanpakutou and was dangling uselessly by her side. Hot blood from her shoulder was quickly drenching her uniform.

"Misawa-san!" One of the officers on the ground yelled, and Misawa realized that the hollow recovered, and a cero came her way. Instinctively, she turned left to shift her right side toward. She raised Mizu with her right arm out in front of her, feebly diverting the attack, but she knew it wasn't enough. She was too distracted, weakened by her injury, and she reacted a bit too late.

A red orb threatened to engulf her. Her arms shook madly. she was taking damage and unable to hold the attack back. Pain spread through other parts of her body.

Then it all went black.

She didn't remember falling or hitting the ground, but she woke up lying on the ground, completely immobilized.

She wanted to sit up. The smallest movements to tense her muscle created enough pain to make her want to scream out, but she didn't have enough energy to.

She groaned, weakly. That seemed like the only thing she could do at the moment.

A somewhat familiar voice called out to her. "Misawa-san! Misawa-san!" She couldn't tell who it was from.

Finally, she found enough strength to open her eyes, blinking adjusting to the sun. She saw a blur of blond hair, and realized who it was that called her earlier: Division Three Lieutenant: Kira Izura. Then, as she became more self-aware, she noticed that she was actually receiving a medical kido from Kira.

"K-Kira Fukutaicho!" She cried out weakly, and saw Kira Izuru turning his face toward her. She realized that he was focused on her left side. Then, a twinge of panic hit as she realized she couldn't feel her left side at all. She wanted to sit up again, only to fail as she collapsed in more pain.

"Misawa-san? Please don't move! Your condition… please just stay still until Division Four can get here!" Kira told her hurriedly. He focused on her left torso and arm region a bit more before turning back to face her. There was a worried and exhausted look on his face.

Why was he worried, Misawa wondered? She wondered if it was about her injury. She was sure she could feel the rest of her arm before she lost consciousness, but a disjointed nagging thought in the back of her head told her that it wasn't the case. "What happened, Kira-fukutaichou?" She asked.

He hesitated to answer. "Please just rest, and stay conscious with me, Misawa-san! Help is on the way." He told her instead.

"What happened?" Misawa demanded with more force this time. It didn't sound too good from the way Kira talked. "I can't relax and calm down until I find out!" She declared. Part of her was convinced that Kira Izuru wasn't a liar, and on top of that, he always acted like a soft-spoken push-over kind of guy.

"Your division members ran into me and a part of my squad when they called for help. My taichou wanted the top five seated officers in our division to do some special training out around here with him. We were quite far away from here, though, and we didn't even sense the hollow until we got near here. On our way here, we saw you deflect an attack and lose consciousness, but we were still too far away. The hollow wanted to use another cero and the two officers with you casted two kido shields with full incantation. The cero still blasted through them eventually, but it significantly weakened. It still hit your left arm and it isn't looking too good right now. But if your officers weren't here, we'd be picking up a singed corpse missing its left side. My officers are good enough to draw the hollow away, so I can tend to your wounds, but we still can't take it down. Officers Yukio ran back to the Seireitei for backup already. They should be here soon now."

"How bad is it?" Misawa asked, referring to her injuries.

Kira hesitated again. "You don't want to know, Misawa-san. It was a cero blast. I'm keeping a stabilizing kido on it right now. I'm sure Unohana Taichou has something for this later."

Misawa gulped. That didn't' sound good indeed. "And my right hand?" She asked. She remembered feeling pain in it before, but now she felt pain everywhere so she couldn't tell anymore.

"Just a burn. Still a nasty one but it's in far better shape than your left."

Misawa sighed, but it was rugged and exhausted. "How are your officers doing?"

Kira looked back quickly. "They are alright. They are my third, fourth, fifth, and sixth seats. They can't win against that thing but they can stall. That's all we need."

Misawa tried to nod but the attempt at movement brought on another surge of pain, and another round of beckoning from Kira urging her to stay still.

Thankfully, Kira was right about being help on the way. After a few words exchanged between them, Misawa saw Captain Unohana of the Fourth Division herself appearing, followed by a small team of healers. In the distance, Misawa could hear some exclamations from male voices and a familiar voice call out "Daiguren Hyourinmaru!" She had no idea what happened in the battle though; soon she forced herself to focus all attention on Captain Unohana. She realized grimly that her injuries must be really severe, since someone with her ranking, or lack thereof, wouldn't normally warrant attention from Unohana-Taichou herself.

"How are you feeling, Misawa-san?" Unohana lowered herself down gracefully beside Misawa, and asked in her normal soft, kind voice. She didn't smile; her expression was never very expressive, but at the moment she seemed as if she was mother talking to her child: concerned and serious, firm but supportive.

There was a rush of cold in the air, and Misawa noticed that her captain was suddenly by her side, too. "Misawa." He greeted simply, but in his eyes Misawa could read worry and a mild anger not directed at her. She tried to smiled at him to say hello, but she wasn't sure if the muscles on her face still moved the way she wanted them to.

Getting back to Unohana's question, Misawa replied, "Not much. A lot of pain, but sometimes I just feel kind of numb."

Apparently that wasn't the right thing to say. Unohana's eyes darkened for an instant and her Captain's eyes widened. Kira Izuru just gasped in shock. "No…" He whispered, and looked at Unohana worriedly, as did Hitsugaya.

Unohana Taichou simply smiled. Not _that_ smile, but still, something but made Misawa feel a bit more nervous. "It's alright, Misawa-san. It's perfectly normal to feel that way under the circumstances. I'll let Minazuki treat you first while we transfer you back to the Fourth Division. We need the facilities there to treat you. Here is a kido to help you sleep."

Misawa felt Unohana lightly tapping her on the forehead, and the world went black again.

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><p>Ichimaru always felt kind of nostalgic going back to the Fifth Division's Barracks. That was where he started, more than a century ago. Some would think he left these halls of his youth behind him when he became a captain on his own, but they don't know how often he still came back here on Aizen's request. Today was one of them. And strangely, Aizen was late.<p>

When he did show up, Aizen Sousuke looked the same he always did: calm, kind, gentle. He looked nothing like what he really was. Even the calm part was an act, Gin thought. Maniacal is more like it. Gin knew his own nicknames among the ranks of the Gotei 13, but he knew he would never have deserved the word "maniacal" had those people seen what Aizen really was like.

"Good evening, Gin. I hope I didn't keep you waiting." Aizen said smoothly as he sat down in his own. Gin already made himself comfortable without invitation.

"No worries, Aizen-Taichou. If ya don't mind me askin', what kept ya?" Gin asked lightly, out of curiosity. He was out for a good part of the day and wasn't quite in touch with what happened after his little performance with experiment #4529 out in the Rukon District.

"Hinamori-kun wanted to visit Misawa-chan in the Fourth Division, who is still healing and wasn't allowed visitors. We ran into Hitsugaya and Matsumoto, so we had tea in his office." Aizen explained patiently. "According to Unohana, you got quite the healing hand in your Division, Gin. Misawa would have lost her arm, if not much more, if your lieutenant didn't treat her wounds so well." It all sounded nice and well, but that was before Aizen added, "Maybe next time, you ought to keep him away."

Gin laughed casually. "Sorry, Aizen-taichou. Wanted to save myself some legwork, so I asked Izuru and the boys to wait somewhere close. Hope that didn't cause ya any touble!"

"No trouble, no. Hitsugaya already destroyed 4529, so there's nothing that can be used against us." Aizen replied serenely.

"And the testimonies from the witnesses?"

"They are rousing some attention, but without a specimen it's just talk. There is something I'm surprised about, Gin." Aizen began, his eyes and expression suddenly unreadable. "When I asked you to try out Misawa's strength a while ago, you said she was well at a Lieutenant's level. It didn't look that way today, given how badly she was injured. I was actually expecting Misawa to kill 4529. It's not like you to make a mistake, but did you over-estimate her, Gin?"

Gin kept his smile and looked equally unreadable. "Nope, Aizen-Taichou. Misawa-chan wasn't fighting very well today, I have to say. Might be the weather – we don't see her fight much, do we? Can't really tell what her zanpakutou does. Maybe it only works in the rain." That wasn't a complete lie; Gin has some very good guesses of what Mizu could do, but it was also true that Hitsugaya rarely let her fight alone, and being unseated, few of her assignment drew enough attention to those beyond her division. Though she visited Division Five almost weekly to work on Kido with Hinamori, Aizen had never been able to observe her in battle.

Aizen nodded. "Could be. Troublesome, isn't she? When we needed a hollow to eat someone, she easily dispatches it. When we need a hollow to fight a long, drawn-out battle to test its strength, she gets shot down within two minutes. But I think we shouldn't need to concern ourselves with her anymore." Aizen sounded like a disappointed father when he talked about the girl. A month ago Aizen wouldn't even have given her existence a second thought, but when Gin mentioned that she was sitting at a Lieutenant's level, Aizen thought it would be suitable to use her in today's experiment. With a commander as rational and as predicatable as Hitsugaya, drawing unseated officers into the field was a lot easier and less conspicuous than trying to dispatch another lieutenant, but it appears that unseated talent pools really weren't as reliable as qualified lieutenants.

"Oh?" Ichimaru asked. "Did you make sure Misawa-chan never leaves the Fourth Division?"

"No. It's too risky killing under Unohana's nose. Misawa won't be able to fight at all for the next two months. That's one less lieutenant-levelled shinigami we'll have in our way. Once we have the arrancars ready, one more, or even a dozen more lieutenants, won't be any issue. We need to find some other way to test those hollows, though."

"So, for the plan next month, we are still looking at just twelve lieutenants, plus the two from the Eleventh Division?" Gin asked, double checking if he was up to date with the plan.

"Yes. Now, there's something I need you to do for our plan next month…" Aizen began. As far as he was concerned, what happened earlier today was already over. Visionary leaders do not succeed by dwelling on the past, even if it was only seconds ago.


	6. Chapter 6: From the Sidelines

AN: So I'm ending the story _Hourglass_ with this chapter, but this is NOT THE END. If you read the original story, you'll know the main plot happens 20 years after the Soul Society Arc, and I'll post Chapter One of this story's continuation next week as a new story. I'll explain more about this decision at the end of the chapter. For now, enjoy :)

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><p><strong>Chapter 6: From the Sidelines<strong>

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><p>"Do you remember what happened?" Hitsugaya Toushirou asked Misawa Rena, his face in its normal light scowl and his eyes serious and solemn. He stood next to her bed in the Fourth Division, looking down at her like a severe parent.<p>

Misawa could already sit up by then. Looking up at her captain, she replied with a hint of unease in her voice. "Not much. Why? Is the investigation still going on?"

She woke up after spending a week in a coma, but her prognosis looked optimistic after that. Most of her physical injuries - broken bones, light burns – were already healed while she was conscious. However, the tissues on her left arm had to be regenerated, and for that, she needed to remain in the Fourth Division for another three weeks. Then, her arm would still be bandaged up for about two months – it was not something Misawa looked forward to. She was going to be promoted for Fifth-Seat the week she was injured, and they rushed through the promotion while she was unconscious as some sort of consolation in case she didn't make it. Now she had a lot more work waiting for her once she recovered.

Hitsugaya sighed, in a manner more suited to the years he had lived rather than the age he appeared to be. "No, we wish there is something left to investigate; back then we deemed it enough of a threat that needed to be put down immediately, rather than investigated. The hollow was an anomaly. Even Unohana couldn't tell it had Menos-capabilities from where she was on the ground."

"I'm sorry." Rena whispered, slightly ashamed. Hitsugaya had a puzzled expression on his face, and she elaborated. "I mean, if I wasn't beaten up so badly, you probably would have faced less urgency in deciding to destroy that hollow; we might have caught it alive and would have been able to study it."

Hitsugaya shook his head. "Four of the top seated officers in the Third Division could only stall it from moving with their coordinated efforts. We might have deemed it too dangerous regardless. What I don't understand is..." He looked more hesitant to finish his sentence, but Rena beckoned him to continue, "… how come it got you so quickly? I know Division Three had more people, but none of them were severely injured. The Yukio twins were on the ground and couldn't see that well, but they said you switched stances at a strange time, and you might have been injured before you were hit with a cero. It was too messy afterwards for anyone to tell. Do you remember anything?"

"No. Not at all. It's all too fuzzy." Rena admitted. "I remember it was regenerating too quickly for physical attacks, and the weather didn't work for my Shikai's special ability. I didn't dare to release Bankai under the circumstances. You told me before…"

"If you felt like Bankai would have been more effective, you should have used it."

"But you said before that I should keep it a secret at least until I could control it."

"I thought you could control it to a degree now. Didn't you use it last time you went on patrol?" He remembered that combat report from weeks ago.

"The only way I can use my Bankai controllably is if I only use enough power that is equivalent of my Shikai." Rena reminded him. "My Bankai's special ability is a bit more flexible, but I didn't think such a small advantage was worthwhile for me to expose it, especially before I can control it properly."

Hitsugaya squeezed the bridge of his nose, tired. "Still struggling, huh? We shouldn't have slacked up on your training."

Rena however, didn't quite hear his words and was more concerned with the signs of fatigue he was showing. "We can talk about that after I get out of here. You should get some rest, Taichou."

Maybe he thought so too. His exhaustion was evident in the dark circles under his eyes, and was soaking through every syllable he uttered. He told her to rest and get better soon so she could come back to do Matsumoto's paperwork. He bade her goodbye for the day, leaving her feeling sort of boring and lonely again.

Lonely was just the beginning. Uesless came next. Rena wasn't sure if it was good or bad luck that she was invalided during the most eventful month in the Seireitei in the past one hundred years. It was almost silly at one point, when she felt guilty that she emerged unscratched from affair that left just about every single combatant in the Seireitei with serious injuries, and forgot about how her own injury predates the invasioin by weeks was still not healed after most of the others' were. It wasn't a compeititon about who was more injured, but the fact that she did not involve herself to save her best friend's life.

Captain Hitsuaya was not-so-secretly relieved that Rena's injured arm prevented her from fighting on the front lines during the Ryoka Invasion; given her affinity to trouble and mishaps, her particpation in the battles would have created more paperwok for him, at the very least. However Rena was not so at ease about her own idleness while her best friend was up for execution. The guilt of not participating in her friend's rescue ate at Rena's conscious, almost as much as the fear for losing the said friend for that reason.

So, when the battle was over and the Ryoka (who were considered heroes by then) left for their homes, Rena hunted Rukia down on one of the noblewoman's excursions into the Gotei 13. Rena still didn't have the guts to call on the Kuchiki Manor directly, but during their reunion Rukia explained how her relationship with her brother had changed for the better. As the conversation drifted to the fact that they had not met since the whole affair began, Rena finally found the courage to ask Rukia if their friendship was harmed by the younger girl's inaction.

"Huh? What?" Rukia looked dumbfounded by this question.

"Do you blame me for not trying to rescue you? I mean, everyone else was there…" Rena rephrased her question timidly, fearing the answer she expected to hear.

"Are you still hung up about that? That was a month ago!" Rukia said, exasperated.

"But it happened like that! Everyone tried to help you and I just sat there, because I was too scared to involve myself." Rena said shamefully, dropping her volume a little, but Rukia would have none of that.

"Your left arm was not usable!" Rukia pointed out bluntly. "It's _still_ bandaged up!"

"My right arm was usable! And so was the rest of me! And I'm right-handed too!" Rena argued.

Rukia adopted a comical and amused expression at this statement. "Right! Your balance will be off by miles without your left arm." She said smugly.

"But that was just one injury! Renji fought even after he was beat up like a sieve… twice!"

"He told me your injuries were quite a bit more serious in nature. And speaking of that: how did you manage to get hit by a cero while in Soul Society? Menos can't exactly just waltz in here. How did even you find one?"

"Well, it was not quite a menos but it could fire ceros. Now that I think about it, it must have been one of Aizen's experiments. Ichimaru was with it when I was attacked, and I have to him to thank for being unable to use my left arm for so long. I didn't figure out it was him for weeks." Rena said.

"See? You were attacked by Ichimaru. You were severely injured! You couldn't have done anything, so stop blaming yourself!" Rukia replied, as if that made all the sense in the world. Or maybe it did, but just not to Misawa Rena.

"That's not the problem! I… I couldn't fight well, but I could have fought if I wanted! I just chose not to because I was scared!" Her tone was getting more flustered.

Rukia dropped all attempt at comedy at this revelation and took on the big-sister persona she often resorted to when dealing with Rena. "People get scared. Why can't you just go with that?"

"It's not just that! I was scared of consequences for myself! I wasn't' courageous enough to risk myself for my friend! Renji wasn't like that! Those humans who came here, they were like that either! It's just me… and.." Rena argued, but was cut-off mid-sentence, almost.

"Stop it!" Rukia said firmly.

"I feel so selfish because.."Rena ignored her, but that wasn't the smart thing to do.

"I said stop it!" Rukia repeated herself, effectively silencing her younger companion. "I understand how you must have felt, but stop feeling guilty! What if my execution wasn't set up by Aizen? If you tried to stop it, you would have probably ended up like me. It wouldn't do any good for any of us!" Rukia pointed out.

Rena gulped. Her response to that was not something she wanted to admit or come to terms with. "But… But I feel like I don't deserve to be trusted by you anymore! And if that's the case… if that's case, can we still call ourselves friends?"

Then, unexpectedly (or since it's Rukia, it was to be expected) Rukia whacked Rena on her head, pushing it back a bit. It never hurt and Rena knew it was done with affection as well, but it was very condescending. "Idiot! You made a different decision from Renji, from Ichigo, and his friends in the Human World, because you had different experiences and obligations from them. You didn't do something everyone told you not to do, you didn't do something you couldn't possibly have pulled off in your condition, how could I hold that against you? Why would I? … What happened to me was bad luck, but we had a happy ending. If we didn't' have that happy ending, how do you think I would feel, if you were to end up on Sokyouku hill with me?"

"But maybe I never thought so much about how you would feel! Just about myself and Division Ten."

Contrary to what Rena believed, Rukia wasn't offended by that at all. "Listen to me, Rena. We are friends – we are good friends. We care about each other, we protect each other, but I still think it's for the wiser if we are honest with each other. Division Ten is like your family; it's just like you to not want to defy its orders. Trying to rescue me was a stupid thing to do, and that goes twice for those who have people they care about in the Gotei 13, and thrice for someone who couldn't even fight at half strength. "

Rena was very moved by Rukia's words – who wouldn't be? She thought her voice must have quivered when she said more. "I wish I could have done more for you, but I never I thought that I could have. Until Renji charged his captain for you, I never thought I could do more. I didn't know anything about Kurosaki-san or how his strength measured, but I knew I didn't have a chance, so I didn't even try anything, because I knew I would literally die trying, and I didn't think die trying to save your life would be worth it. And I didn't think you would have forgiven me for that."

Rukia's tone softened and she looked at Rena with a soft smile – that soft, gentle, sophisticated, Kuchiki-worthy smile., "Hey, don't look like that. You should stop comparing yourself to Renji. He became a shinigami and worked in this system for his own ambitions and purpose, which are different from yours. You are sticking with system, from what I can tell, just to stick with Captain Hitsugaya. Him and Matsumoto-Fukutaichou, they are what you consider family, right? Of course I want you to hold onto that," Then, her face shifted into one of its silly grins, and added "especially since I won't be around to baby-sit you all the time."

Rena finally laughed out loud "Alright, are you going to go away again soon?" So she was forgiven? So she was never blamed at all? She felt like leaping for joy, but she thought even someone who knew her as well as Rukia did would think that was too strange, even for her.

"I think they'll send me on a mission to the Human World to help Ichigo soon." Rukia replied calmly, more business-like again.

Rena nodded. She heard about that mission. "I wish I could meet Kurosaki-san and the others someday." She said with a smile. "I was too wrapped up in work while he was last here."

"I'm sure you will meet him sometime. If you can get along with Renji, you can get along with Ichigo too!" Rukai reassured her.

"Taichou and Matsumoto-Fukutaichou are going too. And Renji." Rena said suddenly. "It's going to be kind of lonely here without you guys."

"From what I heard, you'll be too busy to notice!" Rukia was smirking again.

"Haha, unfortunately. I'll have both Division Five's and Ten's work to do!"

"Don't let your fighting skills rot behind the desk!" Rukia warned with a big smile. "I know we are not going to fight this round of battles together, but I'm sure there plenty more ahead of us. Don't get rusty!"

"I won't. So you promise to come back here – safely and legally this time, okay?" Rena returned the quip with a equally silly face.

"Deal!" Rukia promised that day.

They had to go their separately ways as the battles began. Even with all the optimism they had when they promised to see each other again, Rena begin to despair a bit more with each passing day that did not see the war ending and her friends returning.

Misawa was proud to say by the time of the Battle of Fake Karakura Town, she was a very proficient administrator. Ever since Hinamori's incarceration during the Ryoka Invasion, Rena had been helping her captain with Division Five's and Ten's administrative work. The Fifth Division was mostly discredited when Aizen defected. It was given some menial duties to pass the time, and its members were getting somewhat bitter toward Soul Society. When Soul Society officially installed Misawa as a temporary administrator, as per Captain Hitsugaya's recommendation, Division Five didn't exactly welcome the outsider with open arms.

The officious duty bored Rena out of her mind, but she got better at dealing with people, numbers, details, and impatient administrative bores. It wasn't as if she had a choice anyway; she was chosen for that post mainly because her left arm hadn't recovered so she was not suited for field work. Between being busy and stressed, Rena was too preoccupied to realize how lonely she felt. Besides meeting Fifth Division's seasoned Fourth Seat Watanabe and working with him closely in a strictly professional capacity, Rena made few friends in the experience.

Captain Hitsugaya was more distant after Hinamori was injured; he spent his spare time visiting her, watching her still form, and interacting very little with others. Matsumoto explicitly told Rena to not interrupt him and let him heal at his own pace, but Rena felt like if left to his own devices, his would just close himself off to everyone else.

She was rather surprised that Captain Hitsugaya called her into his office the day before the Battle for Karakura Town. She was still technically a part of the Tenth Division, but nowadays she spent all her time at the Fifth. She only stopped by once a week to drop off her weekly reviews, and he never summoned her for anything anymore. Rena suspected that she wouldn't like how this visit could turn out, and his first sentence to her confirmed that notion.

"During the battle, you will be staying here with Ise-Fukutaichou to oversee the safety and order within the Seireitei and among the remaining Shinigami." He ordered, his voice colder than she remembered. He had been this way for awhile now, but it was even worse after he returned from the mission in the human world.

She bit her lips, wondering how she could phrase a polite rebuttal to that. "All the other lieutenant-leveled officers are going?" She asked instead.

"All Captains, lieutenants or similar-leveled shinigami will be either in Huece Mundo or the Human World, yes." Hitsugaya sounded tired. He always sounded tired these days.

Apparently there was no way this topic could be addressed subtly. "Why were Ise-Fukutaichou and I chosen to stay behind, Taichou?"

"Ise is the one of the best administrators in the Seireitei, and Kyouraku didn't want her on the frontlines, so she stays. She needs an assistant, and you were applauded for your performance with the Fifth Divison, so you are staying with her." If it was possible, his voice got even colder. The edge in his tone was so harsh Misawa could almost feel it cutting her, but she told herself it was not personal, that it was the stress from the war and Hinamori's condition, because that's what she hoped was the case.

"I.. I don't want to doubt the decision of the captains, Taichou, but I do have more experience working in the field than in the administrations, sir…"

He interrupted her bluntly, "I know what you want to say, Misawa. You don't want to be left behind. I'm not going to deny that as far as talent and strength goes, you are not necessarily sub-par compared to the other officers who will join the battle, but you lack experience. Your Bankai is still so out of control that you don't dare to use it for any attack more powerful than your Shikai attacks, which any other lieutenant's Shikai could match. Now, all the other lieutenants are at least decades ahead of you in terms of combat experience, which contrary to what Ichigo Kurosaki's resume might suggest, is very important."

"Isn't having one more lieutenant there better than having one less?"

Hitsugaya closed his eyes, still scowling, as he replied, "Not if her presence and welfare will be a source of concern and distraction for other officers present."

She could only nod in response to that; how could she try to rebuff him for having a point like that? As cold as he seemed, maybe he didn't stop caring about her in the past few months and they still that special bond of mentor and student, of friends, between them? Or was he just talking about Matsumoto-fukutaichou when he said someone might be concerned about her?

Rena felt like the last sentence was a dimissal and was about to leave his office when he stopped her and walked up to her, shoving a small fabric pouch into her hands. She held it up to examine it, confused by this gesture and this item.

"What is this, Taichou? It looks like… some sort of charm. The shape is strange, though." She said slowly.

"It's a special reiatsu-absorber. It absorbs reiatsu leaking from a body. Loosening the knot activates it." He explained. "Be careful when you use it; it ultimately removes reiatsu from a body, so don't leave it open permanently, because it could drain all your strength. When you are trying to suppress your spiritual pressure to avoid detection, you will only give off very small traces of reiatsu, but using this covers your track completely."

Misawa nodded, but she was still confused. "Taichou, why are you giving me this?"

He didn't answer her question directly. "If we can't hold Aizen at Karakura Town, if him or his army of Arrancars get here, and the Royal Guard didn't show up like they never do, I want you to run. That is an order, got that? I want to you not be a hero and forget everyone else who is here because you won't be able to do a thing for them. Just run and go into hiding, and use that." He said, pointing to the amulet.

Misawa was rendered speechless. She felt something funny in her throat and her eyes felt watery. The warmth from the thought behind this small object and gesture easily melted the ice Rena casted around him in her mental image of what her captain was becoming these past few months.

Hitsugaya cleared throat awkwardly, and dismissed her. "You may go now, Misawa. Take care of yourself."

Misawa nodded, her eyes still feeling like a mess. She turned to the door, only to find Lieutenant Matsumoto standing there. She must have came in the room in the last couple of minutes and stayed quiet to avoid interrupting them. Misawa realized that Matsumoto was going to battle too, and wanted to say something, but the lieutenant beat her to it. She pulled Rena into a smothering hug, and Rena returned it as firmly as she could.

"Good luck, Matsumoto-fukutaichou!" Misawa said, pulling away from the lieutenant she learned to love like a big sister over the years.

"You take care too, Rena-chan! And let's stop acting like we'll never see each other again! It's only one battle!" Matsumoto said with a bright grin.

Misawa nodded, and headed for the door. As she was about to walk away and close it behind her, she stuck her head in, and said loudly, "You be careful, too, Taichou!" With Matsumoto's words echoing in her head, she smiled the brightest smile she could come up with in months, and added, "I'll be waiting in your officer when you get back!"

She would have liked to think that there was a hint of smile under her captain's annoyed expression when she left his office that day.

At her current level, Misawa Rena could only give promises like these. She could only watch the war being fought, but it wasn't over for her yet. She wanted to believe that her captain would come back victorious, and then they could keep training. Then one day, she'll be strong enough to fight on the front lines with them. One day, she could be strong enough to receive those promises from others.

-INSTALLMENT I FINISHED-

-To Be Continued in INSTALLMENT II:The Passage-

A/N: I originally wanted to write a story about an OC when I started writing four years ago, so back then it made sense to put her in the centre of the story, and it made sense to me to add a time skip because it was the best way to tell Rena's story. However, in the past couple of years I really put a lot of thought into the story I wanted to write, and while Rena is important, it no longer made sense to revolve the story reclusively around her. In my mind, this chapter is not a very well-organized chapter, but they are scenes I wanted to throw out there before I move on.

I hope you enjoyed this story! The next part will be set twenty years into the future, and will be AU as of the end of the Aizen Arcs. Don't forget to check back in about a week or two for it!


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